


Skinned Alive

by ChaoticMigraine



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Age Difference, Angst, F/M, First Time, Fluff and Angst, Jealousy, Possessive Behavior, Protectiveness, Survival, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:01:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 57,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22190728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticMigraine/pseuds/ChaoticMigraine
Summary: “The hick is ruthless; he’ll do about anything to protect his people.” His voice was low and calculated, almost manipulative. The tension was palpable, but the man in front of her, was sat on a sofa, confident and relax, his right arm thrown on the back rest of the sofa, while she stayed stand up, her back to the door of the room. “Except when it comes to you.” He added, his eyes not leaving hers.The silence surrounded them for a second as she looked back up at him from the floor, almost holding her breath. “He cares about you.”
Relationships: Daryl Dixon/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 55
Kudos: 103





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Thum Thum Thum 

The heavy steps of the redneck echo on the wooden floor of the barn where Beau was being kept prisoner. He sits her up on the floor against the wooden wall of the barn, her hands tied up with an old rope, behind her back. The barn looks mainly empty and old, everything was made of old wood, the door was shut closed and there were no windows. Rays of bright sunlight pierce through the cracks of the gloomy and shadowy barn, showing the dancing dust. The heat inside the barn is suffocating and overwhelming, it feels like a sauna. 

The sheriff, the Asian and the old farmer found her in the local town after they killed some guys in a bar. She listened to the commotion but stayed hidden in the back alley, trying her best to hold her breath when the sheriff checked no one else was left behind alive. The air was hot and humid, Beau could feel beads of sweat falling down her temples and on her lips, her short brown hair was messy and stuck to her forehead and her temples. She quickly passed her hand over her lips before gripping back her .45 in her hands. She could feel the heat radiating from the walls of the bar and the road beneath her, her back was wet with sweat, sticking her oversized t-shirt to her and her Puma x Fenty Bear backpack. Beau could feel her heartbeat in her ears as she knew someone was approaching, anxiety made her feel nauseous but she slightly turned to the right, hiding behind the wall of the bar before lifting her .45 with shaky hands as the gun was heavy and she hadn’t had a real meal in two days. 

Click

She could feel the hard muzzle of a gun on the back of her head and she swore her heart stopped for a split second before coming back at high speed. 

“Drop the gun.” The voice was raw and the tone implacable.

Beau lifted both her hands in the air, her .45 in her right hand.

“Drop it.” 

She slowly squatted down and put her gun on the floor, near her foot. 

“Turn around. Slowly.” 

She did as she was told. The man in front of her was tall and lanky, with piercing blue eyes and a serious face, he was holding a Colt Python to her face. He was staring at her, studying her almost and Beau knew he was confused as he couldn’t tell whereas she was a boy or a girl. 

She took that moment of inattention to glance at her gun, nearby her foot, calculating if she had time to pick it up.

“I wouldn’t if I were you, kid.” His tone was menacing, a threat. His blue eyes were cold and icy, and she could tell that he would shoot her if needed. 

“You’re with them?” He asked with a slight tilt of his head, towards the bar. 

Beau licked her lips, out of nervousness, her throat dry and tight. 

“No. “She replied, her voice sounded strained, like she hadn’t talk for a while. 

“Rick! What are you doing? We gotta go!” The voice was panicked and belonged to a young man, an Asian guy turned up in the back alley, a rifle in his hands. Beau could read shock and fear on his face as he lifted his rifle to her.

“He’s with them?” The Asian asked nervously, nodding towards Beau and then glancing quickly at Rick. 

“I don’t know but I’m not taking any chances.” He said while stepping towards Beau, his gun firmly pointed to her. “Take the gun.” He said to the Asian guy, nodding towards her gun.

“What are we gonna do? We can’t kill him, it’s a kid!” Claimed the Asian guy, panicked as he picked up the gun on the floor.

“I know.” Rick growled. “He’s coming with us.” 

He grabbed her firmly by the arm and swirled her around, pushing her against the wall harshly, face to the wall and hands spread on each side of her head. Her hands hit the wall painfully and hard in order to keep her balance as much as she could, her hands getting scratched painfully by the rough wall, making her wince. 

“Hands against the wall where I can see them.” He said before kicking her left foot with one of his, in order to spread her legs more. He removed her dark green and blue plaid bear backpack and threw it to the Asian guy who caught it in mid-air and threw it over his own shoulder before pointing back at her with his rifle. Rick started to body search her, tapping her all over. Once satisfied, he tied her hands up behind her back with a rope he found nearby and ripped a piece of his shirt before blindfolding her. He finally dragged her roughly to a car. She understood there was three of them, Rick, the Asian guy that turned out to be called Glenn and Hershel that she didn’t see.

They drove for a little while, maybe half an hour before they got to destination. There were more people, she could hear other man and woman when she was violently ripped off the car and dragged to that dusty barn. 

She was thrown in there, to the ground and she pushed on her feet to sat up against the wall of the barn. She was left on her own for a few minutes before someone walked in and locked the door behind them. The blindfold was wrested of off her roughly and she had to blink a few times to adapt her eyes. The rugged country man was inches away from her face and his squinty blue eyes were on hers. He looked dirty and was shining with sweat, he wore dirty black jeans and a sleeveless dark green shirt that he clearly ripped the sleeves off himself. He had dirty brown short hair, sticking to his face with sweat and Beau thought she probably had a similar haircut, after she buzzed her head four or five months ago. 

He was carrying a hunting knife on his belt and Beau noticed that her bear backpack, her only possession, was sat in the middle of the barn. In some weird way, it did reassure her to see her bear backpack sat there and looking back at her, it felt like she could breath easier. 

“What’s yer name?” His voice was gruff and low at the same time and Beau noticed the deep southern twang. 

She knew she couldn’t talk much, or he would know that she is girl. She might look like a boy, but her voice was a giveaway, not that it was particularly feminine, but it was not masculine either and that added to her almond-shaped blue eyes and thick eyelashes and pink plump lips and he would put two and two together. And if Beau knew something about this new world is that it doesn’t do well to be a girl. Well, when did it do well to be a girl anyway? She always was a tomboy, for as long as she can remember, trying to do everything like her twin brother, following him around and acting like him. Brady was the better version, he always has been smarter, funnier, cooler, more charismatic. Even though, they were physically identical, the same almond-shaped blue eyes, thick eyelashes, freckles all over their faces and short brown hair, she was still a pale copy of her brother. Beau was obviously smaller, and she always been overly skinny, she always seemed to swim in her baggy clothes. She couldn’t fill up an A cup bra, which in this time and place, served her well. 

She looks away and the redneck walks towards her backpack.

“The fuck is this? - He says as he lifted her bear backpack in the air as in to show her- “It’s the end of the world and you go around with this. Jesus…How did you even survive that long?” He shakes his head disapprovingly as he opens the backpack and empty it. 

He first gets out two bottles of pills that he shakes slightly before reading the label and putting them on the wooden floor. He then gets her automatic flick-knife out, a black double blade, 122-1Z Zombietech Standard. He gets the blade out and snorts mockingly while looking at it.

“’That yours?” 

Beau nods once. 

“That’s a nice range. Pretty sure the guy selling them didn’t expect us to use it on real walkers though.”

He put the knife down and got two cereal bars out, her iPod and headphones and a baseball. He seemed annoyed by the content of her bag and dismisses it before taking her knife back in his hand and starts pacing the barn like a lion in a cage, playing with the blade. He seems like the nervous and angry type.

“So, how many in yer group?” He asks harshly. 

“I’m not with them.” She answers quietly, keeping her eyes down to the floor, hoping her voice wouldn’t betray her but he stopped dead in his track, and when Beau looks up to glance at him, she can see him looking at her with a frown and for a split second, she can see he is confused. But before she can worry about him discovering she is a girl, he walks to her in one step and slaps her hard across the face, making her fall to her side on the ground. The slap was violent, and she winces as she can feel tears coming to her eyes, her ears ring and her left chick and lower lip burn. She can taste blood and she know her lower lip split under the violence of the hit. He grabs her back roughly by the collar of her XL t-shirt, sitting her back up, and pushes her hard against the wall, hitting her head and her back painfully.

“Yer boys shot at ma boys, tried to take this farm. How many? “He growls angrily, spit coming out of his mouth. And he slaps her again on the same chick, hard, her head flies to the side and she falls to the ground again. He stands up and paces the barn nervously as Beau cries under the pain as she can feel the gash on her lips getting larger, blood and saliva mixed together, falls from her lips.

The redneck comes to kick her in the stomach, but Beau huddles up in a fetus position, putting her knees to her chest protectively, and shakes her head slightly as to say ‘wait’. Tears keep falling down her chicks and she painfully tries to swallow as she feels her throat is in an iron grip.

“I’m not lying, man. I’m on my own.” This time she doesn’t care about her voice, but her pain and weep thickened her voice, making it sound broken and raw. He doesn’t seem to notice as he clicks on her automatic knife, getting the blade out. The sound echoing menacingly in the barn, as the redneck steps towards her.

“No, come on, man!” Beau says fearfully as she manages to sit herself up against the wall once more by using her core and pushing herself with her feet. She rests her head and back against the wall as she huddles up as much as she can, keeping her legs close to her and her knees touching her chest, as far away from him. He squats next to her and forcefully grabs her foot, pulling her right leg away from her. Beau panics and start wriggling around to escape his grip, as he fights and uses his strength to keep her foot on the floor. She kicks him hard with her other leg and she manages to throw him off and he stumbles back, falling on his ass. He stands back up quickly and this time, as he grips her right leg, he uses his knee to weight her other leg down. Beau finds herself wriggling around desperately as she pants tiredly. He removes one of her trainers, a beaten pair of white Nike Air Force, that he removes roughly with her dirty white sock and she stops moving for a few seconds, out of breath and exhausted. She then feels the sharp blade next to her middle toe, cutting through the skin painfully. Fear and panic give her some energy and strength back and she tries to throw him off once more, he growls angrily as he fights to keep her down. She gets tired really quickly and she understand that her situation is hopeless, she is almost laid down on the floor, her head resting against the wall in an awkward position, her hands are tied up behind her back and her legs are neutralized. Her breath comes out ragged as she knows what he’s about to do. 

“Don’t! I don’t know those guys, I swear! Please.” She pleads as he slices slightly deeper on her toe, making her wince painfully. The blade cut through the skin and the thin flesh easily and Beau can feel her hot and wet blood sliding between her toes, down her foot and on the wooden floor. 

She cries and winces as she adds quickly: “I don’t know those guys; I stay away from people. I was driving down from Atlanta but then, I had to carry on by foot. Wrong place, wrong time, man. I swear!” 

The redneck stops momentarily and takes the blade away, keeping it in his hand. He squats closer to her, his face inches away, staring at her, studying her and Beau can see his face expression change for a spilt second, but she couldn't quite read it. Was it surprise, shock, realization? As quickly as it came, it was gone, replaced by his usual frown and aggressive demeanor. He sighs angrily through the nose and stands up abruptly, pacing around angrily once again. 

“Fuck!” He shouts to no one in particular, his hand going through his dirty damp hair in a nervous fashion, as he looks away from her. “What’s yer name? And don’t even think ‘bout not answerin’!” He barks angrily at her, pointing the blade at her, drops of her blood dripping from it. 

“Beau.” Her voice is strained and tired, and he stops pacing, as he looks at her intently. 

“Where ya from?” His voice is lower and calmer suddenly as he seems focused, like he was reading her. 

“Florida.”

“What are ya doin’ in Georgia?”

“What’s it to you?” Beau answers, drained, as she keeps her eyes on the floor. 

“Watch it.” He growls as he takes a step forward menacingly. 

“Went to school here.” She finally sighs. 

“Where?”

“Lawrenceville. Gwinnett County.”

“How old are ya?”

A second passes before Beau finally looks up at him, her eyes fixed on him.

“Nineteen.” She sighs as she looks back down, letting her head falls forward, defeated. 

A moment passes, both silent as the redneck looks at her, still, as Beau keeps her eyes at the floor where a little puddle of blood was forming near a right foot. 

“Shit.” He says almost whispering, more for himself as he swiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He finally turns around and open the door of the barn, the ray of light blinding Beau for a second, before he leaves and lock the door behind him. Beau can barely hear his footsteps as he walks away and finally the silence surround her.


	2. Chapter 2

A million thoughts go through Beau’s mind as she waits for someone to come barge in and drag her to her death. Despite being exhausted, mainly due to the heat, the lack of food and the fact she had been kidnapped and beaten up, she still feels wide awake due to the adrenaline going through her body. Her heartbeat fast and strong. She feels weak however, and she could feel her whole-body trembling from the adrenaline mixed with her fatigue. She sits up against the wall, her eyes wide open as she stares at the door, waiting and holding her breath for what feels like an eternity. She can tell the sun is going down as the heat isn’t as intense and suffocating as it is during the day, it is more breathable. Also, she could see the light shift through the cracks of the barn and the darkness slowly creeping in. Beau always liked nighttime and strangely, she liked it even more now the world has changed. She felt protected by the darkness, like she could hide in it. Also, the night was a time of rest, when she would have managed to clear a house or a car, and huddled herself up to sleep, after making it safe enough to stay. When no one comes to get her, she allows herself to relax a little, and her whole body feels stiff from the lack of movement, she can feel pins and needles in her legs and bum. She exhales through her mouth and lets her head fall backward, against the wall of the barn. She unconsciously tries to lick her cracked lips and swallow her own saliva, but her mouth is completely dry. She sighs desperately as she takes a look around the barn, studying it. Could she find a way out? If she did, could she outrun them? Would she get shot on the spot? What about her gun and knife? Surely, she couldn’t leave without her weapons, she was as good as dead in the streets without them. Realization hit her hard and she can feel tears coming to her eyes as she sighs tiredly again.  
Fuck. She was going to die here.  
She can’t feel pins and needles in her hands anymore, they are numb and cold, the blood circulation probably cut off by the rope. Her injured toe is throbbing and painful but eventually it stops bleeding and the rest of her body feels broken.  
She lets her upper body slide to the ground, and she lays down on the wooden floor of the barn, her bum and back against the wall and her head laying directly on the dusty floor. Beau doesn’t know what to expect from that group who got her here but all she knows is that people were crazy and dangerous nowadays.  
Strangely, she doesn’t feel thirsty or hungry anymore, she is just terribly exhausted and as she lays on the floor, after looking into the void for awhile, her eyes catches the sight of her bear backpack and her breathing slows down; It was almost like the bear had anxiolytic properties on her. It calms her down and she grows very sleepy, her eyes shutting down slowly.

Creak.

Beau wakes up with a start at the loud sound of the barn door being thrown open. She doesn’t even remember falling asleep and she doesn’t know how long she was asleep for. The barn is plunged in darkness and so is the outside, it must have been the middle of night; and only the lantern that Rick carries, brought some light on them and in the barn. Beau had expected the hick to come back but instead Rick is there with a determined look on his face, followed by a buff looking guy. The guy reminded her of a soldier, buzzed head, a serious and angry scold on his face and he looked like two hundred pounds of pure muscles. 

Beau feels her heartbeat strong and fast as panic and fear run through her like bile. The buzzed head guy grabs her roughly by the shoulder, pulling her t-shirt off of her shoulder at the same time, to pull her up to her feet. She winces at the feeling of putting her weight on her injured toe and she can tell the slight self-healing that occurred just got wrecked. 

“Stand up.” He barks angrily as Beau struggles to balance herself on her feet. The two men were armed and seemed nervous and tired at the same time. Rick puts the lantern temporarily on the ground as he picks up the material they used as blindfold earlier and walks towards her to put it on her while the other guy was holding her in place.

“Come on, man, you don’t have to. It’s dark, I won’t see shit.” Says Beau desperately as Rick secures the blindfold with a tight knot. 

As they drag her out of the barn, Rick holding her by her right arm while the other brute clenches painfully on her left shoulder, she struggles to keep her balance as they walk fast, her toe hurting badly, and she can’t see anything. 

“What are you gonna do with me anyway? I’m not leaving without my shit!” She bites as she stumbles around between the two men. 

“It’s your lucky day, kid. Someone vouched for you.” Spits the other guy sarcastically.

“’The fuck is that supposed to mean?” She angrily asks as her foot hits something hard and by the sound it made, it must have been wooden stairs. She stumbles and she would’ve fell to the ground if both men weren’t holding her tightly. 

“Up.” Growls Rick as they half carry her up the stairs. Beau can hear a swing door being open and falling shut after they walked in. They stop momentarily and even though she couldn't see anything, she knew she was inside a building, probably a house and she could feel people’s presence as she hears a few woman gasp at her and the creaking sounds of footsteps on a wooden floor. 

“What happened to his toe?” A woman asks worriedly but an awkward silence answers her. 

“Since when do we torture kids?” Another woman asks with a deeper voice. 

“We needed to be sure.” Rick says firmly. 

Beau is once again dragged around and forcefully sat down on a chair. Someone rips the blindfold off of her eyes and she blinks a few times to get used to the lights coming from the lanterns all around the room. They are inside a typical old farmhouse, everything seems to be made of wood, the floor, the walls, the table and even the chairs; the house is plunged in darkness except for the lanterns, making the atmosphere a weird combination between cocooning and worrying.  
Beau is sat at the end of the table while Rick was standing up at the other end of the table; he has a serious scold on his face that deepen some wrinkles between his eyes. Hershel is standing near Rick with a small gun in his hand, his eyes fixated on Beau, like the rest of the people in the room. They were all standing up around the table, looking awfully exhausted and worried; Glenn is standing next to a tall and short-haired girl that has her arms crossed on her chess, in a defensive demeanor. Even the hick was here, leaning against the wall, nonchalantly, a little apart from the rest of the group, almost like he is an outsider. He is the only one not looking at her as he seems to look at the leg of a furniture, while biting nervously at his thumb. The silence is heavy like everyone was too scared to move or say something and Beau swallows nervously as Rick runs a hand on his face, in a nervous fashion. 

“Daryl told me your name is Beau. Is that right?” He asks with a nervous tilt of his head towards her, his voice low and calculated. 

“Yes.” She whispers back. 

“Have you got a group?”

“No.”

“You’ve been alone this whole time?”

“Yes.”

“How did you survive?”

“Scavenged, slept in cars.” She shrugs. 

The silence comes back and Rick signs heavily, turning around, stepping forward as he passes a nervous hand through his hair, as if he was taking a minute to himself to evaluate the situation and make a decision. He turns back around and walks back to the end of the table, his hands grabbing strongly at the frame of the chair in front of him.

“I need more than that.” He affirms; his voice gruff. 

The atmosphere feels suffocating as everyone is quiet and tense, holding their breath. 

“What’s your story?” He adds when he sees Beau wouldn’t say anything else. 

Beau swallows nervously as she looks around before looking back up at Rick. The silence prolongs for a few seconds but it felt like no words could come out of her mouth; she give up and she finally shrugs, not too sure of what to say.

Bang.

Everybody in the room jumps, startled by the loud noise cutting through the heavy silence of the room; and Beau, like everybody else turn towards the redneck, who was responsible for the outburst. He had hit the table violently with his fist, out of anger and frustration, finally looking at her, his eyes boring into hers.

“Answer the damn question!” He spits furiously. It looked like they were having a silent battle of who would submit first but Beau finally grimaces and leans herself back into the chair; just noticing that she had leant forward and towards him in an aggressive demeanor. 

She slowly looks back at Rick.

“I’m from Florida but I was going to community college in Lawrenceville. I’m on my own, I’m trying to go back to Florida. I’m looking for my bother.”

Someone behind her laugh, it was between a sarcastic and an anxious laugh, like he couldn’t believe how stupid she was to think she could walk herself to another state in this world to find someone that could be anywhere, even dead. The brute comes into sight next to her, passing a nervous hand on his buzzed head while looking at her mockingly, but before he could say anything, Rick questions her once more. 

“And you think you can find him?”

“I got all the time in the world, now, aren’t I?”

“You never associated yourself with anyone before, any group?”

“In what language do I have to tell you this?” She bites angrily. 

“How many walkers have you killed?”

For some reasons, that question alone stopped everyone in their tracks, Beau could see surprise on people’s faces, and she saw the amused smile on the brute disappear as he mumbles a “You gotta be kidding me” before walking out of the room. 

“Walkers? Is that how you call them? They’re zombies, man, like in 28 days later. Didn’t y’all watch movies before all this?”

“How many?”

She sighs.

“I don’t know. Maybe fifteen, maybe more. Who knows?” She shrugs nonchalantly.

“How many people have you killed?”

She hesitates.

“I shot someone.”

“Was he dead?” 

“It was a girl.”

“Was she dead?”

“I’m not sure, I didn’t stick around to find out.”

“Why did you shoot her?”

“I had to.”

A few seconds of silence passes as Rick stares her down, studying her from afar as if he tried to figure out if he could trust her or not. He finally stands up and opens a pocketknife, that echoed in the silent room, as he walks towards her and Beau hold her breath.  
He cuts off the rope that falls to the floor in a mat noise and Beau grimaces as she finally moves her painful hands to her front, opening and closing her fingers repeatedly to get rid of the numbness. 

“Does it mean I can leave?” She asks quietly. 

“You’re gonna stay the night and if tomorrow you still wanna leave, we’ll take you back to the streets; but you’re welcome to stay. We’re stronger as a group, being alone is dangerous nowadays.”

She didn’t trust them, but she couldn’t deny she was tired and lonely. She has been walking by herself for over eighty days endlessly, scared and starved. Loneliness and paranoia made her lose her mind, she regularly has conversations with her bear. Thinking of which.

“Can I have my stuff back?” She asks, looking back at Rick who nods. 

“Even my gun?” 

“You won’t need it for tonight. You’ll have it back tomorrow. I’m sure you understand.” 

“Figures.” She sighs, annoyed. 

“When was the last time you ate?” Asks a tall and lanky woman with long brown hair. 

Beau shrugs. 

“A while.” 

She nods and smiles sweetly as she puts a comforting hand on Beau’s shoulder, but that one shrugs it off, slightly flinching. Everyone in the room seemed to notice it but Lori put on an understanding smile on her face. 

“I’m sure I can find you something to eat.” She says as she makes her way to the kitchen. 

Beau goes to stand up but Hershel walks to her and pushes her back gently on the chair.

“I wouldn’t stand up quite yet, child.” He says as Beau is sat down again. 

“I want to go get my stuff.” She explains but Hershel ignores her as he tilts her head with his fingers holding her chin to the side, so he can observe the damages caused by the hick. 

“The bruises and split lip should heal by themselves, however, I might have to stitch that.” He adds looking at her bare foot covered in dirt and a mix of dried and fresh blood. She nods as he asks a certain Beth to bring him his medical kit and a bucket of soapy water. 

“I’ll go get your things from the barn.” Says Rick but before he can make another step forward, Beau stops him by grabbing him firmly by the arm. Rick stops dead in his track and looks at her, a scold on his face.

“The bear. The bear and the baseball are important.” She says lowly, as she lets her hand fall to her side. 

Confusion is written all over Rick’s face, but he nods and leaves as Beth comes back with a bucket, a medical kit and a towel thrown over her shoulder. She kneels by Beau’s chair and starts cleaning her foot after dipping the towel in the soapy water. 

“I can do it.” Beau says hurriedly as she bends, trying to take the towel from the blond-haired girl’s hand. 

“It’s okay, I don’t mind. You’re injured.” She says with a soft and sweet voice, beaming up at her with big blue eyes.

The way she smiles and the way her eyes linger on Beau for slightly longer than necessary, made her feel somewhat uncomfortable and she figures that the girl might be into her, thinking she’s a boy around her age. She finally nods slowly before looking up and she notices a mocking smirk on the hick’s face. Their eyes lock for a second and realization hits Beau. 

He knows. And the little shit is amused.

Beau exhales through her nose out of frustration and locks her jaw, glancing away and she can hear the hick laugh quietly, a discreet mocking laugh that no one seems to notice. 

The water in the bucket turns brown from her dirty foot, really quickly and once her foot is clean and dry, Hershel inspects the wound as fresh blood comes out of her halfway cut toe. He pushes it slightly in the direction of the cut to see how deep it is and Beau winces painfully.

“I don’t have any anesthesia left so you’ll have to bear with me.” 

Beau grimaces but nods eventually. As Hershel starts stitching her, Rick comes in with her bear backpack in one hand and the baseball in the other one. He puts the items on the table in front of her and she hugs the bear, hiding her face in it as she groans out of pain. 

When Lori comes back with a plate of chicken leg and few vegetables, most people that were in the room had left to go to bed. 

“Thanks.” She says quietly as she looks at the plate carefully. 

She hears a mocking snort from the redneck and this one steps to the table and digs his dirty fingers in her plate, picking a bit of the chicken flesh and some carrots before putting them in his mouth and eating it, before sucking on his fingers noisily. 

“It ain’t poison, kid.” He says as he goes to lean back against the wall again.

“Gross, man.” She mumbles as she pulls the plate to her and starts eating. She wouldn’t admit it out loud, but it somehow reassured her to see him eat it first. She is too interested in the food they have gave her to care about the pain of Hershel stitching her without any drugs. He bandages her toe, once he was done. 

“There is a bathroom you can use upstairs and Jimmy, here, can give you some clothes, the time yours get wash and dry.” The old man says, pointing at a teenage boy.

As soon as she finishes the plate, she follows Jimmy to what seems to be his bedroom, he looks through an old wooden chest of drawers and gets a clean large white t-shirt, a large pair of beige short and a black boxer that he gives her before making his way to the bathroom. He explains her that the house is supplied by the wells and they only have a few minutes each under the shower, before leaving her to it. She locks the bathroom door and puts the lantern on the floor as there were nowhere else to put it, and she leaves her backpack next to it as she looks around; the bathroom is a medium blue, rather dark and it looks like an old bathroom, like the rest of the house. There is a single porcelain sink and an oval mirror above it, an old fashion bath with lion feet and a copper shower attached to it, and a tiny window above it. Beau decides to double check if everything was back inside her backpack and once satisfied, she swallows two opioid pills for the pain in her toe. She looks at herself in the mirror and she can tell she lost weight just by the looks of her face. She has black circles around her eyes showing her fatigue due to numerous sleepless nights, a yellowish green bruise is spread on her chick demonstrating the violence of the hick towards her and her lips are swollen and bloody caused by the slaps, a large bloody gash on her bottom lip.  
She is pale too and looks dirty, there is black marks all over her, her hair is greasy, and her clothes are disgusting; she is wearing an oversized white t-shirt with a faded Florida sticker that said, ‘The sunshine state’ and a large dark blue Nike football short. She is still wearing a white dirty sock and her white Nike Air Force trainer on her uninjured foot. She fills up the sink with water and soak her clothes after removing them. She finds a bar of soap on the edge of the bath and uses it to wash her clothes as much as she can before spreading them on the sink and bath’s edges so they can dry.  
She washes herself and despite the fact that the water is cold, she still enjoys it a lot. Once she is dried up and dressed in that Jimmy’s kid clothes that looks huge on her, she picks up her drying clothes and puts her backpack on as she gets out of the bathroom. Everybody seems to have gone to bed except for Glenn who seems to be waiting for her downstairs. 

“I’m in charge to find you a place to sleep.” He says with a friendly smile and a shrug and Beau simply nods. “We don’t have any tent to spare so you’ll have to share with someone.”  
He looks at her to see any disagreement on her face but finding nothing, he carries on. “Carol is alone in her tent, so there is space with her however she lost her daughter recently so it might be… complex. Daryl has his own camp side going on and he’s alone in his tent, but I wouldn’t recommend it. He can be quite…rough around the edges, I guess, and I don’t think he’ll want to share. Andrea and Dales shares the RV while the Grimes family stays together. I share a tent with T-dog so it might be a bit cramped, but we’ll be between bros.” He adds with a playful smile and bump her shoulder with his fist. 

“It’s nice and all, but I think Imma pass. I can crash outside.” Beau mumbles as they make their way to Glenn’s tent. 

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea. It’s safer in a tent, with people.”

“You got people guarding the area.” She says nodding her head towards Andrea that paces the top of the RV with a rifle and Shane seemed to circle the farm with a crowbar. 

Glenn sighs as he looks around.

“Rick wanted me to keep an eye on you.” He admits as he scratches the back of his neck, embarrassed. 

“Of course, he did.” She mumbles, rolling her eyes. 

“Look, I’ll let you sleep under the stars at the only condition you stay outside my tent.” He gives in. “But if Rick gets mad, it’s on you. Let me grab you a sleeping bag from the RV and I guess you can stargaze.” 

He comes back a few minutes later with the sleeping bag and Beau slides herself inside it, exhausted, just outside their tent as Glenn disappear inside it. The bear couldn’t fit inside the sleeping bag, not like she hasn’t tried to slide it inside as well, but she grips firmly on one of the strap of her backpack, holding it close to her with one hand, near her head as she puts herself on her side, hiding the rest of her face in the sleeping bag, her other hand holding the baseball tightly, underneath the sleeping bag.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Beau doesn’t know which one wake her first, the sunlight or the heat that comes with it. As soon as the sun is up, the heat is almost unbearable, shining high and bright in the sky, never a cloud visible in the horizon. She should be used to it, Florida is a hot state too after all, but she was used to air con in the shops, cars, bus, school and even at home. What Beau learnt from this new life is that life without aircon sucks bad.  
Her eyes were shut close and yet she could perceive the sun underneath her eyelids. The heat inside her sleeping bag was excruciating and she looks for the zip as she blinks multiple times to adapt her eyes to the sun. She groans and a deep frown appears between her eyebrows as soon as she opens her eyes and she throw her left arm on her face to cover and protect her eyes from the blinding light. She is still holding the baseball in her right hand and she gets it outside, the already half thrown opened sleeping bag, and holds it up above her face, admiring it with half-shut eyes. 

"Now batting the second baseman number seven, Brady Montgomery.” The deep voice called out on the microphone. It was sunny and hot; the whole high school and the parents were present, excited by the baseball game. Beau was sat down next to her parents, she was wearing an old training baseball jersey that belonged to her brother; the jersey was dark blue with a grey Bulldog’s face on the front, and it read DeSoto County High School Bulldogs and Brady Montgomery with a big 7 on the back. The jersey was baggy on her, but she loved it, she wore the high school baseball cap backwards and smiled back at her brother that had turned around to nod towards her before turning around to face the pitcher. 

“Nice ball.” 

Glenn’s voice says suddenly, cutting her off from her daydream. She averts her eyes slightly from her baseball and looks up at Glenn who’s standing above her as she is still laying down in her sleeping bag, an arm covering her eyes, and this one nods towards her baseball.

“Yeah.” She mumbles before sitting up and twisting her upper body to grab her bear backpack and putting the baseball back inside it. She turns back looking at him, expectedly.

“Um yeah…-He says nervously as he scratches the back of his neck. –so, Rick told me to show you around and we’ll find you a job if you decide to stay with us. So, I’m Glenn and this is T-dog.” He says playfully as he points at a large black guy coming out of the tent. 

“Hey, what’s up, bro?” This one says as he bumps his fist to hers and Beau simply nods back. 

“We have a talker on our hands.” Says an older man as an obvious attempt of humor that falls flat, as he walks to Beau and shakes her hand. “I’m Dale, nice to meet you. I really hope you decide to stay with us, the more the merrier.” 

“Dale, you gonna scare that poor kid away.” A blonde woman says with a playful smile as she taps the older man on the shoulder in a friendly manner. “I’m Andrea. Nice to meet you.” 

Andrea shakes her hand too and Beau stands up quickly as she feels cornered by the little group of people that had now formed a circle around her and were observing her. The silence prolongs as she almost rotates on herself as she takes a look at them, one by one, with narrowed eyes as the sun blinds her and she has to frown to see them properly. 

“Hey.” Someone calls out and everyone turn towards the redneck that stands a few feet away from the little group. His eyes are sets on Beau, his squinted blue eyes catch hers and Beau can tell he can read or even feel the distress that comes from her. He throws her a bottle of water quite roughly and it hits Beau in the stomach as she quickly grabs it with both hands. The bottle of plastic was not pristine and new but rather crumpled as if it had been used over and over again. Beau used to have a slight OCD about her drinks, she would’ve never drink from an old and over used bottle of water but nowadays, she was just happy to see a plastic bottle filled up with transparent water. She nods towards him as a “thank you” and he nods back briefly before walking away. 

“Someone’s feeling guilty.” Andrea says with a mocking snort as Beau opens the bottle and drinks up. 

“Don’t worry about Daryl. He doesn’t play well with others.” Dale claims but Beau couldn’t seem to care less as she turns herself towards Glenn.

“You wanted to show me around.” She reminds him, rather abruptly and this one nods.

“Follow me.” He says as he throws his right arm in front of him, almost in a theatrical manner, to show her the way. 

They walk together as Glenn points out people on the way, letting her know their names and role among the ‘community’. Lori, Carol, Beth and Maggie were mainly in charge of cooking, cleaning and doing the laundry while Andrea and Dale were mostly on the lookout. Glenn and Maggie were the ones running errands for the group and Hershel was the knowledgeable farmer with veterinarian skills that nowadays were considered gold as if he could fix animals, he could fix humans. T-Dog was another muscle, good at fighting and useful on the camp. Rick was the leader, the ex-sheriff, with unwavering morals and the need to lead and protect his people with never-ending commitment, taking difficult decisions for the group. Shane was his right-hand man, in charge of protecting the group, clearing areas and houses, taking over when Rick couldn’t for any reasons. Glenn explained to Beau how they all met back in Atlanta and how their little group worked and survived together as they walked all around the farm, the house and finally their little campsite. 

“Any questions?” He finally asks at the end of his tour. 

Beau licks her lips as the heat was hitting her hard and she looks far ahead as she spots the campsite of the redneck, afar from the rest of the group, completely isolated. 

“What about the hick? What’s his job?” She asks as she nods towards Daryl’s campsite. 

Glenn turns around, following her stare before looking back at her.

“Daryl is our hunter; he catches our meat and he’s mostly in charge of finding us dinner. He’s a good fighter too.” 

“’’m surprised he doesn’t have a rebel flag hanging outside his campsite.” She mumbles slyly and Glenn laugh quietly. 

“Daryl can be abrasive but he’s an important part of this group; we’re like family.” Glenn explains.

“Not like. We are.” Says Rick as he comes up to them with his cowboy-like walk, his Colt Python attached to his hip. “Thank you for showing him around, I appreciate it.” He adds towards Glenn with his hand on Glenn’s shoulder.

“It’s all good. I’m gonna go help Maggie picking up peaches. I hope you’ll choose to stay.” He says enthusiastically before walking away. 

As soon as Glenn leaves, the atmosphere changes and become tense as Beau catches Rick already staring at her, his eyes set on hers; it’s like the man could never stop himself from calculating everyone’s steps and thinking ahead.

“I’m sorry about how things started between us. We don’t usually do that, torturing kids like you, it’s not us. But you gotta understand, I gotta think of my people first. You could’ve been one of them, you could’ve been a real threat and I couldn’t let that happen.” He pleads as he talks, getting closer to her.

“I get it.” She says, her hands up in order to appease him.

“I’d like you to stay. People are valuable, we’re stronger together.”

Beau inhales deeply as she looks away, thinking. 

“I’m not gonna lie, you sold it pretty well to me. The isolated farm, away from the geeks and outsiders, the water supplied by the wells, the food, the people taking shift, the doc that fixed me up.” She says as she looks around the farm. “It’s tempting, you got a good thing going on. But I need to stay focus, I’m looking for my brother and I won’t find him if I’m confined here.” 

He seems shock for a second to hear her speak so much.

“I know what it is, trust me, I was looking for my family too; but the streets aren’t safe. Alone, this is suicide. How long will you still be able to carry on looking for him? Running low on food and sleep? Walking the streets with no one to have your back? We can’t do it without people anymore.”

Deep down, Beau knows his right, she is exhausted and drained; the idea of walking the streets by herself again makes her want to cry, but she shakes her head slightly. She can’t accept it and she step back, unconsciously. 

“Looking for him, that’s what kept me going. That’s what keeps me alive.” She says, her voice low. 

“I don’t feel comfortable with the idea of leaving you by yourself on the streets, sending you on your merry way. It’d be on my conscious. Listen, we won’t stop you from looking for him. You can go on errands with Glenn and Maggie, they need more people out there and you know the streets, you’ve survived by yourself this whole time. At the same time, you could check every town and area you go to.” He offers and this time he is the one with his hands up in order to calm her down, almost like she was a scared wild animal that needed extra care to be approached.  
Beau couldn’t deny that his offer sounded really appealing to her. Maybe this could work, right? She would have food and water, people to have her back and she could finally sleep at night and during the day she could scour every towns and area around. She bites her lower lip thoughtfully, before wincing when she feels the open gash on it. She sighs and looks at Rick. 

“What if I want to leave? Can I leave at any time I want? No hard feelings?” She asks carefully and she can see Rick is thinking about it and finally nods carefully to her.

“Yes, you can leave at any time you want.” 

“Are there rules that I need to obey to?” 

“No specific rules but we look after each other, we have each other’s back. We take decisions together and everyone participate with the tasks.” 

Beau nods.

“What about my gun and knife? I want them back.” 

Rick exhales deeply through his nose and nods understandingly. He gets her Smith & Wesson SW1911 out of his back and extends his hand to give it to her but before she can grab it, he brings it back to him slightly. 

“You can have it back.” He finally says. “Don’t make me regret this.” 

Beau nods and finally takes her gun. She looks at it, reassured to have it back, she did feel vulnerable without it. Rick is observing her closely, ready to disarm her at the first sign of aggression but Beau puts it in the back of her shorts. 

“What about my knife?” 

“Daryl still has it.” 

Beau nods and looks towards the redneck’s campsite, and sure enough, this one appears from behind his tent, dragging a heavy looking dead hog with a rope behind him. He seems to struggle under this heat, and he grabs a dirty looking red bandana from his back pocket to dab away the sweat from his forehead. T-Dog and Shane runs toward him as Beau can hear them and a few other people cheering him up for bringing fresh meat which will feed them all for as long as they can conserve it. Shane and T-Dog help him to hang the dead hog on a nearby tree with the rope so the hunter can gut it and skin it. Both Rick and Beau observe the scene quietly, looking afar, lost in their own thoughts.

“You can’t keep me here, I need to be out there every day, looking for him. That’s the only thing that matters to me. I know he’s looking for me too and I won’t stop until I find him.” Her voice sounded far away and quiet, almost like a confession and Rick turns towards her, his eyes on her, listening carefully as Beau keeps her eyes on Daryl and the other two. “But I can’t deny that I can’t carry on by myself, I need people and someplace safe to come back to. I like the idea of running errands, I’m street smart, always have been; I’m not fast, I take my time and until now it served me right. As long as you let me go out look for him as much as I need, I’ll be useful and loyal, I’ll have the back of your people.”

Rick nods understandingly. 

“Sounds fair to me. Do I take it that you’ll stay with us?” 

Beau exhales through the nose as she looks to the floor without saying anything and Rick seems to understand her underlying hesitation.

“You can stay around until you decide; try to let me know by dinner, I would rather get you back to town before night.” He sighs and nods to her before walking away. 

As soon as Rick leaves, she looks back up at Daryl from afar and she finds his eyes on hers, he is staring back; he is sat down astride a made-up bench that he probably made out of a log of wood, bloody meat in front of him and his hunting knife in his right hand. Shane and T-Dog cutting pieces of the now partially skinned, opened and gutted dead hog a few feet away from him. It was like time has stopped, the brightness of the sun forcing them to squint to look at each other and none of them seem to be able to avert their eyes from each other. After what felt like an eternity, Beau lifts her right hand up and gives him the finger and even though, they are far away from each other, she can see him snorting mockingly as he gently shakes his head and pays attention back to the meat in front of him. 

Beau decides to walk back to her sleeping bag, outside Glenn and T-dog’s tent, where she finds her bear backpack sat down next to it. ‘I’m here.’ She mumbles to the bear as she goes to check if her clothes were dry as she had left her damp clothes to dry on the made-up clothesline that linked their tent to a tree nearby. 

“You don’t need to worry- Beau jumps, startled, by Beth’s voice. She turns around and the blonde girl looks at her with her big blue eyes, her smile and demeanor are shy and uncertain, and Beau frowns, looking at her, without saying anything- Jeremy said you could keep his clothes, he doesn’t mind. You could do with another change of clothes.” She adds with a soft voice and a sweet smile.

“Thanks.” Beau mutters, as she nods awkwardly to the girl, before turning back to her clothes, inspecting them and hoping the girl gets the message that she does not want to talk. 

She could feel Beth’s presence behind her, standing awkwardly, her hands linked together nervously, and she can tell the girl wants to get to know her. Beau does her best to ignore her but eventually Beth comes into view as she also inspects Beau’s clothes, paying a particular attention to her Florida t-shirt. 

“How’s Florida? I’ve never been.” She asks sweetly. 

Beau shrugs and wipes her nose, in her best boyish impression. 

“Alright, I guess.” 

“Where about in Florida are you from?” 

“Arcadia.” 

Beau feels bad for the girl as she knows she is the least easy person to have a conversation with, especially when she knew Beth was probably sweet on her. Beth does not seem to take offence, however, and she walks happily towards the bear as Beau observes the girl curiously, still with a slight frown.

“That’s a nice bear.” Beth claims and Beau nods simply, observing the girl closely, not liking the fact that someone was that close to her stuffs. 

“How old are you?” The blonde girl asks.

“Why?” Beau asks suspicious. Did she think she was a child for having a bear backpack?

Beth seems thrown by the defensive question.

“I’m just wondering, you look really young.” 

“’m nineteen. -She mumbles, feeling stupid. She was really unhinged, after all. – ‘bout you?” She forces herself to ask, to not seem too impolite. 

Beth beams by the question.

“Sixteen.” 

Beau simply nods, looking afar. 

“Lori and I are in charge of preparing lunch today. Would you like to help out?” Beth asks, with an inviting smile and her hands in her pocket.  
Beau grimaces discreetly, not keen with the idea of being scrutinized by both girls, but she feels like an outsider and maybe participating at a task might help her to feel less out of place. 

“Yeah, alright.” She shrugs.

People around the farm seems to busy themselves with the different tasks; Lori, Beth and Beau were pealing and cutting carrots and potatoes that Glenn and Maggie had previously picked up the day before, while Dale and Andrea were on the lookout, Dale sat down in his camping chair on top of his RV with binoculars in one hand and a rifle in the other. Andrea was walking around the farm, her handgun in her hand, scanning the horizon carefully. Daryl had finished to skin the hog and was now cutting small pieces of it while T-Dog and Shane were bringing the pieces to the kitchen for Lori and Beth to cook it as Beau carried on pealing and cutting the vegetables. Beau noticed Shane lingering around Lori, watching her in a lustful way as he leaned on the door frame of the kitchen, leaving T-Dog to go back and forth between Daryl’s campsite and the kitchen. The meat was cooking on the stove and a big saucepan of water was boiling away on the side as Rick appears in the kitchen, followed closely by Carl and Hershel. Rick seems happily surprise to find Beau sat down on a high stool of the kitchen, pealing carrots with a dishtowel hanging on one of her leg. He nods to her and Beau manages a discreet corner smile that only Rick catches. Beth throws the clumsily cut vegetables in the steaming pot and before Beau can cut the last carrot into medium-sized slices, a dirty hand grabs it quickly and when she looks up, Daryl is smirking to her as he bites it in a noisy crunch and leans against the kitchen surface, in a brazen attitude. He faces her, their eyes meeting and she can see the amused spark in them. There is nothing she can do; that guy really riles her up and he seems to know it and mock her for it. Beau cannot stop the anger running through her like a powerful poison in her veins, she cannot stand his cocky demeanor and she wants to rip that smirk off of his face. The fucker did beat the shit out of her, after all.

“’The fuck you’re smiling at, hick?” She spits angrily before she can stop herself and the friendly atmosphere disappears as soon as the words leave her mouth; the silence falls darkly in the kitchen as everyone seem to hold their breath, looking at the heated exchange; Rick ready to intervene. 

She stands up from the stool without even noticing it, her body leaned towards Daryl in an aggressive manner, her chest not reaching his, but her body nudging his still. She is much smaller than him, and her nose reaches his chest. Nevertheless, she straightens up to her full height and glares up at him; everything in her demeanor screamed that she was ready for a fight, even though, deep down she knew she would never have the upper hand over him or any other man. Even as she tries to make herself look tall and dangerous, Daryl is over a full head and a half taller than her.  
Daryl does tense slightly at the nickname. Or was it her closeness? He loses his smirk but stays calm, surprising the people in the room. He puts the rest of the carrot on the surface, imperturbably and pushes himself off the surface slightly, so their chests hit and obliges Beau to back off slightly. 

“You.” Everybody included Beau, seem stunned by his answer as the silence reigns in the room.  
Beau remains quiet for a second, a deep frown between her eyebrows as she looks up at him, her eyes on his. She does not know how to get back at him. 

What would Brady do? What would he say? 

She backs away from him, grimacing as she wipes her nose with the back of her right hand in a boyish demeanor. 

“Get the fuck of me, man. I ain’t no faggot!” She spits aggressively at him.

He wouldn’t have said that. He wouldn’t say that. A sly voice whispers in her head and she twitches slightly, unconsciously like a nervous tic, to try and push the voice away. She does not have time to worry if anyone noticed her weird behavior that the hick is on her. 

This time Daryl loses any playfulness or calmness and steps towards her aggressively, closing the gap that Beau had created; he looks at her from his full height, his head slightly tilt downward, and Beau loses confidence, but she refuses to give in and back down. 

She has seen Brady in about a hundred school fight, usually because she was being bullied and he was standing up for her. How many times did she stand behind him and observed him as he stood straight, looking fearlessly at the school guys in front of him, aggressively, ready to fight, no matter what? She knows how to mimic his demeanor perfectly, she did it her whole life. 

At that thought, she straightens up and clenches her jaw, keeping her head up, in a fearless bluff.

“Ya better watch yer mouth, lil’ shit!” He whispers menacingly. 

“Or what? Uh? You gonna cut off another one of my toes, bitch!” She spits at his face and from the corner of her eye, she can see Rick hovering the scene, ready to separate them. 

“Ya want blood? I get it.” He says, surprisingly, calm and quiet; his eyes not leaving hers.

Before she can answer, Rick intervein and places himself between them; “Alright guys, I think you both need to take a walk. If you can’t be civil, then keep away from each other.” He says as he puts the palm of his hands flat on both their chests to keep them away from each other, at a safe distance. Both of them jerks away violently from Rick’s touch and glare at him. 

“Get yer hands off me!” Daryl shouts at Rick and this one holds his hand open towards him in a calming manner, as to appease him.

“Fuck this.” Beau mumbles as she storms out of the back-kitchen door, by pushing open the mosquito net door that falls close in a creaking sound, behind her. 

“Yeah, ya better walk ‘way.” Shouts Daryl behind her and Rick sighs, exasperate by their temperament. 

“Daryl. -Rick calls out to get Daryl’s attention back to him. -You’re the older one here, be the bigger man, will ya. If he decides to leave, you’ll have his blood on your hands.” 

Daryl puffs as to say he couldn’t care less but Rick catches his eyes.

“Make things work. Quit playing with that kid’s nerves.” His tone is implacable and Daryl exhales deeply through the nose as he looks down, in a mixed emotion between being embarrassed and annoyed being caught and told off for picking on a little brother. 

He nods and leaves through the same back door that Beau has used a minute ago; the calm and silence coming back to the kitchen as the rest of the people sigh, just realizing they had held their breath under the intensity of the moment. 

“Looks like we have a teenage Daryl Dixon on our hands.” Lori says quietly and everybody in the room seem to agree silently with her.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

As soon as Daryl gets out of the farmhouse, he slows down to a stop, he exhales deeply through the nose to calm himself down as his gaze skims the horizon to look for the hot-headed teenager. His eyes squinted through the brightness of the sun, it does not take him long to spot her; she angrily pulls her now dry clothes off the clotheslines, in a precipitate manner before almost punching them inside her bear backpack and throwing it on her shoulders, to finally stomping away furiously on the dusty path.

“Shit.” He whispers to himself before running towards her. It does not take him too long, but he has to cross the majority of the farmland to catch up with her. Dust from the sandy path flying around their feet. 

“Hey!” He calls out behind her as he is now slowing down but still making quick and large strides to keep up with her. 

Beau ignores him as she carries on walking away, determined to leave this place and get away from this people and the hick in particular. 

“Hey! ‘m talkin’ to ya.” He calls out again, as he grabs her arm firmly and swirls her around roughly; she struggles to keep her balance as she is forced to rotate on herself abruptly, but she reaches for her .45 in her back as the same time and point it at him. 

Beau can read surprise and maybe shock on his face for a split second like he hadn’t expected for her to draw a gun at him that easily, before stepping away from her, unconsciously. He rotates himself slightly to the side but keeps his eyes on her, cautiously. 

“What? Ya gonna shoot me, kid?” He says darkly, his voice low and gruff, with a false calm attitude. In the way he said it, Beau could almost guess a hidden smirk, like he did not believe she would have what it takes to actually gun him down here and there; but he did not smirk so he had a doubt that she actually might. After all, the kid in front of him is rash as hell. 

“Imma fuck you up, punk!” She bites angrily, daring almost. 

He slowly reaches for his cigarette’s pack in his back trousers’ pocket and at that, Beau reaffirms her grip on her gun. Daryl holds his left hand up open towards her, in order to try and appease her as he gets the cigarette’s pack out and taps it gently on his chest to ease one cigarette out. He lightens it up after reaching for a lighter in his back pocket and takes a drag on it. He holds the pack towards her and tilt his head to it in a silent offer, but Beau shakes her head once in refusal, and he puts it back in his pocket. 

She keeps her gun on him, holding it with both hands, her legs apart in a solid stance while he smokes his cigarette almost peacefully, but Beau can see his calculating eyes on hers. 

The moment is tense, and their eyes are not leaving each other’s. 

“Where d’ya think ya goin’ like that?” He asks in a conversational manner; his tone and demeanor calm as he puffs on his cigarettes.

“What does it look like, uh? ‘m out of this bitch!” She spits angrily, as beads of sweat drips down her temples. She passes a nervous hand on her forehead to try and dab away some sweat before quickly going back into her defensive position as she swears, she saw the redneck taking a small step towards her. 

“By yerself? How d’ya think it’s gon’ go?” He asks quietly as a frown appears on Beau’s face.

“It ain’t your fucking business, that’s how it’s gonna go!” 

“I can’t let you go out there; it ain’t safe.” 

Did she hear him right? Did the hick fall on his head or something? 

“You can’t stop me!” She shouts at him, incredibility written all over her face. 

That one sentence seems to take him back, like he got slap in the face. It was like looking into a mirror and that realization bewildered him more than he would’ve like. It could feel a mix of different emotions running through him; between shock, sadness, anger and affection. He drops his half-finished cigarette on the floor as he looks at her intently. Everything about that kid in front of him screamed ‘anguish’, like she had a few layers of skin missing, like she had been skinned alive. 

They can hear the mosquito net door creaking open repeatedly and some commotion outside the farmhouse, the group has come outside, looking at them from afar, their hands to their face to offer them more visibility through the sun. They keep their gaze on each other’s, but they can see Rick, Shane and Andrea running towards them, from the corners of their eyes, making Beau even more nervous. Before they come any closer, Daryl turns around slowly towards them, not completely but enough to see them and keep Beau in his view. He puts his hands up to keep them calm and at bay.

“It’s okay. I got this.” He repeats calmly, towards them and they stop merely thirty feet away from them. 

Andrea adopts a very similar stance that Beau has, back straight, legs apart as she points her own gun to Beau, both hands firmly on it.

“’The hell are you doing, Andrea? Put that gun down!” Rick growls as he puts his hand on the barrel of the gun, trying to push it down but Andrea steps aside.

“He puts it down first.” She bites, her eyes not leaving Beau’s face. 

Daryl turns back around slowly, facing Beau once again, his eyes catching hers and ignoring the three others completely. Daryl steps aside carefully, placing himself in front of Beau in a manner that covers her completely from Andrea’s view, making it impossible for the blonde woman to take a shot at the teenager without shooting him first. He is distraught as he does not know what to say or do that would calm the angsty and defensive teenager. He is trying to think of what would have calm him down at nineteen years old and unfortunately, he cannot think of anything that would have work. 

He exhales deeply through the nose as he approaches Beau slowly, like she would be a scared and cornered wild animal, and deep down he thinks that is exactly what she is; Scared, exhausted, cornered. 

“What about that switchblade of yers? You gon’ leave without it.” He says in an attempt to distract her. 

She twitches under the realization. Shit. How could she forget about it? Anger always made her too reckless. Furtive flashbacks of Brady giving her the automatic knife in that motel room, before dropping her off at her new community college appears in her mind and she shakes her head slightly to get the images to go away. She licks her lips, tensing up, before nodding nervously. 

“I want it back.” 

If Daryl wouldn’t know the signs, he’d say the teenager was high on meth.

“I don’t have it on me, it’s in ma tent. We can go get it.” He says tilting his head to the side, stepping towards her a bit more.

He could tell she was hesitant for a second, considering it but she shakes her head.

“Why don’t you go get it yourself, bitch?!” She bites back at him. 

He exhales through the nose, clenching his teeth, trying to keep his own nerves in checks. 

Be the bigger man. 

“Git that gun outta ma face. “He murmurs dangerously, approaching her slowly, obliging Beau to step back. She keeps her gun on him, hesitant as she feels cornered by the redneck who keeps stepping towards her, fearlessly. When he finds himself close enough, he puts one of his hand on hers that hold the gun, around her wrist, and his other hand on the barrel of the gun and pushes it down firmly but cautiously. Every single of his movement is calm and calculated. Once the muzzle of the gun points to the ground, they find themselves standing barely two inches away from each other; Daryl dominating her completely by his height as Beau’s nose reaches into his chest. They can hear and feel each other’s respiration as he stays and nudges her, his right hand firmly on hers, keeping the gun down. His height and large frame hide her completely from Rick, Shane and Andrea’s view or anyone that could’ve come from the farmhouse. She keeps her eyes down, refusing to look up at him.

“Don’t ever point that thing at me again.” He whispers menacingly to her ear as he tilted his head down, his face nudging her hair.  
The moment is intense and somewhat intimate. Their closeness seems to keep them cut off from the rest of the world; Daryl whispering to her in order to keep their conversation private.

“Or what? You gonna slap me around again?” She asks quietly without any aggressivity as she sounded jaded. 

“I don’t hit girls.” He whispers again to her ear.

Beau’s heart misses a beat as she looks up at him suddenly, her head snapping up, their eyes meeting and locking into each other. She is thinking to deny fervently but something in the way he is looking at her let her know it was a lost cause. He knows. She frowns and opens her mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. 

“I won’t tell.” He says, in voice low and gruff and she finally averts her eyes way, looking afar. 

“Whatever, man. Don’t know what you’re on about.” She mumbles as she exhales through her nose. 

He has a short and quiet laugh, something between amusement and incredibility, looking into the horizon too.

“Put that gun ‘way. Andrea ain’t jokin’, she’ll shoot ya. She shot me a few weeks ago.” He says, his eyes coming back to hers. 

“Good.” She bites but Daryl can see the playful smile on her face.

Beau peers around slightly, her face appearing on the side of Daryl’s arm so she can look at the blonde-haired woman behind the hick, and sure enough, Andrea is still firmly pointing the gun towards her, unblinking, even though Daryl’s body is almost enveloping hers in a subtle protection. 

Beau hides her face back behind Daryl’s body, and it almost look like she hides her face in his chest as they stand so close. She laughs quietly, amused, a genuine laugh and even to her ears it sounded weird. 

“Told ya.” He sighs amused, actually finding the situation funny as well. 

None of them dare to make a move for a second or two, as they would not want to break the moment, but eventually Beau swirls her .45 around the trigger guard, around her finger so the barrel ends up in her hand, pointing downwards, and the grip upwards. She extends it slightly towards Daryl, pushing it gently in his stomach and he nods in a silent understanding, before grabbing the gun. He puts both his hands in the air, showing the others that he now has the gun and it is safe before slowly turning towards them. Rick nods at him, satisfied that the situation had been handle well and finally looks at Andrea severely for her to drop her gun, which she does. Shane and Andrea look at Beau like she is bad news, and this one seems to recoil behind the hick. 

Daryl and Rick look at each other’s intently and it looks like they were having a silent conversation before Daryl finally nods. He turns around, grabbing Beau violently by her oversized t-shirt and pushing her in front of him, making her wince. He puts her gun down his trousers at the front and Beau grimaces.

“Dude, gross.” She mumbles as she looks at her gun, down his pants, offended. 

“Let’s go.” He growls, lowly, ignoring her and Beau is confused by the change in his attitude as she is being drag brutally behind him, his hand tightly sank in her arm. 

“Where we going?” She asks, grimacing as she struggles to follow the redneck that walks fast across the farmland. 

Daryl ignores her and they finally reach Glenn and T-Dog’s tent.

“Pick it up.” He orders, nodding towards her sleeping bag, on the floor. 

“Fuck you, you can’t tell me what to do!” She spits like an irritable child. 

Daryl grabs her arm painfully and throws her to the ground brutally, on her sleeping bag.

“What the fuck, man?” She shouts, anger and angst coming back to her like a powerful drug. 

“Pick. It. Up.” He mutters menacingly, dominating her with his height.

“Why?” She says, defeated and tired of people beating her up, torturing her and throwing her around. 

“The sheriff wants me to keep ya in check, cause ya fucked up when ya draw that gun ‘round. Ya got people nervous! -He says edgy and annoyed. -Fuck! I didn’t ask to babysittin’ ya.” 

“Told you to let me leave, douchebag.” She mumbles as she actually obeys him by rolling her sleeping bag together, crouching next to it. 

“I can’t. I vouched for ya and ya can’t fuckin’ behave!” He spits, an accusing finger pointed at her.

“Why?” She asks, actually curious why he vouched for her, as she stands in front of him carrying her sleeping bag in her arms.

“Ya know why.” He says, his voice raw as he looks at her in the eyes. 

Guilt. That’s what Beau find. That’s why he vouched for her to stay. He was feeling guilty to have hit and tortured a teenage girl. Beau exhales through the nose and nods.

“So where are you gonna get me to sleep?” 

He tilts his head towards his campsite and Beau sighs, mumbling sarcastically ‘Great’ as she follows him. If he heard her, he does not show her as he simply walks ahead of her. 

Once they reach his secluded campsite, she unrolls her sleeping back outside his tent.

“What ya doin’?” He asks abruptly.

“What does it look like to you?” She asks sarcastically. 

“It ain’t safe to sleep outside. Ya sleepin’ in the tent.” He didn’t seem too thrilled about the idea either.

“No, thanks, man. I’m good outside.” 

“I ain’t asking.” 

They both look at each other’s daringly, ready to jump at each other’s throats and Daryl closes his eyes, passing a hand on his sweaty forehead, trying to calm himself. 

Be the bigger man. 

“’m jus’ tryna keep ya safe, ight.” He says through clenched teeth. 

“Says the guy who fucked me up.” She mumbles sarcastically.

He sighs tiringly as he looks at her, studying her. There was something about her vulnerability and aggressivity that made her endearing and captivating to him. He could see her thick and long lashes as well as the freckles that covered her face from where he was standing and he finally averts his eyes, mentally slapping himself for going there. 

“Ya can hit me back if ya wanna.” He sighs, as he knew his nineteen years old self would want blood if he or his brother would’ve get beaten up outside a bar or else. An eye for an eye. 

Beau turns towards him, shocked by the sudden offer as she stares at him, unsure if he was serious; but the hick looks back at her with his squinted blue eyes, imperturbably. 

“If I’d be a dude...Would you give me a free pass to hit you?” She whispers to him, seriously. 

He sighs, shaking his head exasperate. What is wrong with this child? But the truth is ‘no’, he wouldn’t give a free pass for a dude to get back at him. 

He throws his arms open, ignoring her.

“Take the shot already.” He says impatient. 

Beau drops her bear backpack on the floor, before punching him in the stomach hard, making Daryl flinch and tense up but he quickly straightens back up, waiting patiently.  
Beau frowns annoyed with herself for not being able to hit harder.  
She pushes hard on his shoulders, making him lose his balance and back away abruptly. She pushes him again before punching him hard in the groin, shocking the both them. Daryl hunches over in pain as he groans and drop on his knees. 

“That’s some bitch move, kid!” He bites, teeth clenched under the pain.

Beau takes the opportunity for him to be on his knees to punch him straight in the face, hurting her hand in the process as her fist bangs Daryl hard in the jaw. His head is barely thrown to the side, but his lower lip knock his teeth hard and split under the hit. Daryl can feel blood dripping on his chin, and he can taste it as blood gets in his mouth. He licks the open gash to check the damages and he spits a mix of blood and saliva to the floor, before looking back at her, submissive. 

Daryl can read shock and maybe embarrassment on the tomboy’s face before she drops on her knees herself, her hands unconsciously holding his shoulders with both her hands.

“Fuck. ‘m sorry, ‘m sorry.” She says quietly, grimacing, trying to catch his eyes with hers but Daryl avoids her gaze, frowning. He never showed himself so vulnerable and submissive to anyone but the need to appease the teenage girl and getting her to somewhat trust him seemed stronger than his own ego and pride. 

After waiting for the pain to ease away, he looks up at her, their eyes meeting and locking. They both have beads of sweat running down their faces, their mouth slightly agape, seemingly out of breath. 

“Yer done?” He mutters, his voice strained and raw. 

Beau nods.

“Then get yer hand off me.” He says menacingly.

Beau lets her hands fall to her side, taken back once again by his changing mood and attitude. She sits on her knees, observing him as Daryl stays on the ground too. He looks at the dry grass on the floor, playing with it, distractively, picking some out.

“I got this brother of mine, name’s Merle. -He says, his voice low, lost in his thoughts. He doesn’t look at her, his eyes looking absently at the dry grass he is playing with. -I grew up in his back pocket, followin’ him ‘round.” 

He snorts almost sarcastically or bitterly, Beau wasn’t sure, but she does not say anything, listening carefully; it sounded like a confession and for some reasons, she has a feeling that the hick does not share often. 

“Somethin’ got messed up back in Atlanta and we got separated. He’s missin’, prolly dead. I don’t know. – He sighs and finally looks back up at her, their eyes meeting and locking once again. - All I know is yer as good as dead alone out there. Ya got more chance to find’im with us than by yerself. I’ll have yer back but ya gotta let me.” He says quietly.

Beau observes him cautiously and after digesting everything he said, she exhales deeply through her nose before nodding at him. He nods back and finally stands up on his two feet, wiping the blood off of his chin. He stretches his hand to hers, in a silent invitation to help her back up and Beau accepts it, grabbing it firmly as he pulls her on her feet. Without another word, Beau crouches to grab her sleeping bag and quietly gets inside Daryl’s tent to set it in the opposite side of where Daryl’s makeshift bed was. Daryl lets escape a satisfy sigh and when he turns around, he catches Carol walking to him with two plates. 

“I thought you guys might want some lunch.” She offers sweetly, extending the plates to him.

Daryl mumbles a ‘thanks’ as Beau comes out of their tent and unconsciously goes to stand behind Daryl as she would try to hide herself protectively behind the hick. Carol tries to take a look at Beau and extends a plate to her with a gentle smile. 

“Thanks.” She mumbles too and grabs the plate.

“It’s nice to meet you, Beau. -Carol says and Beau simply nods. -I’m Carol.” 

“Hi.” Beau answers awkwardly before picking up her bear backpack and her .45 that Daryl had left on his makeshift log-bench before disappearing in the tent. 

She can hear them talk discreetly as she places her clothes in a pile at the side of her sleeping bag and leaves her bear in the corner of the tent, nearby the ‘head’ of her sleeping bag, turning towards the entrance of the tent and places her gun next to it. Once satisfied, she sits on her sleeping bag, on the floor, and starts to eat her lunch. Hog meat and carrots. 

“If I wouldn’t know better, I’d say he’s lookin’ for a fight.” Daryl mumbles as he stands at the entrance of the tent, looking directly at her bear.

Beau turns around to look at her bear, still chewing and finally turns back to Daryl with a smirk.

“He doesn’t like you.” 

Daryl walks inside the tent and in two steps he reaches his makeshift bed. He sits in the middle of it, his plate on his knees, mimicking Beau’s position.

“Yeah? He told ya that.” He asks as he starts eating.

Beau nods simply.

“He got a name?” 

“Roosevelt.” 

“Like the president?”

“That’s right.” 

“He talks to ya often?” 

Beau nods quietly, looking at her plate, not taking offence by the question. She kind of accepted that she lost her mind in the way.

“Where ‘bout ya from in Florida?” He asks, trying to get the teenager to talk.

“Arcadia.” 

Daryl sighs discreetly as he gives up and slumps himself against the tent as he carries on eating in silence. 

“What about you?” 

He looks up at her.

“Ellijay.” 

“You got big gators there too.” She says as she puts her now empty plate on the floor.

A discreet smile appears in the corner of the country man’s lips as he seems happily surprised for the teenager to mention alligators.

“Ya like gators?”

Beau nods.

“I used to go on fishing trips with Brady and his friends.” She adds. 

“I miss those.” He says as he leans forward to leave the plate on the floor, between them. 

“Thanks for letting me stay.” She mumbles as she reaches for both plates and goes to leave the tent, but Daryl stops her by placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t get in a fight with anyone.” He orders.

“Yes, sir.” She says sarcastically and she has a short and quiet laugh when she hears Daryl muttering ‘Lil’ Shit.’ 

She walks quickly to the kitchen, keeping her eyes down and ignoring the severe looks of some people of the group, trying to keep her nerves in checks. As soon as she enters the kitchen, the people present gets quiet and the heavy silence plunges in the room. She doesn’t know where to put the plates and Lori finally stands up and take them from her. 

“Give me those. I’ll take care of them.” 

“Thanks.” She mumbles and go to leave the room but stops before reaching the door. 

She turns to look at Rick.

“’m sorry, it won’t happen again, but the hick had it comin’.” She mumbles as she leaves. 

The rest of the day seems to go smoothly as most people worked around the farmland. Daryl worked on his arrows for some time while he sent Beau looking for twigs for a fire, after giving her automatic knife back as she would have to walk around the borders of the wood. They decide to have dinner just the two of them, cooking squirrel’s meat at the end of a stick after Daryl lit up a campfire. The evening went quietly and once the sun went down; Daryl picked up his crossbow before throwing it over his shoulders.

“Ya should get some sleep, kiddo.” 

“Where you going?” 

“’m on shift ‘night. Patrollin’ the area.” 

“Can I come?” Beau says as she stands up and Daryl sighs, looking into the dark horizon as he gnaws on his thumb. 

“Guess, it couldn’t hurt. -He mumbles, looking back at her. -No gun, kiddo.” 

Beau nods before following him over as they walk round the farmland, Beau staying slightly behind him as she kicks twigs around. The silence surrounds them, as most of the group went to bed, but it is not awkward nor tense. Daryl catches Beau inspecting her bruised knuckles as she touches them and winces.

“It’s gon go by itself. Wait a few days.” He mumbles, observing her on the side. 

Beau nods.

“’s alright. So, you always been a bowman or is it just your weapon of choice for the end of the world?” Beau asks quietly as they stopped momentarily.

“Always been. I used to hunt for me and ma bother. Where did ya get yer gun from?” 

“Gun shop in Atlanta. That’s the only gun I managed to get; people were going crazy for them.”

“Can imagine. If ya were goin’ to college in Lawrenceville, where was that brother of yers?”

“Florida State. He played for the Seminoles.”

“Baseball?”

Beau hums for an answer. 

“’m sorry. -Daryl whispers, so quietly that Beau has to turn towards him to make sure that he actually said something. -For that time in the barn.” Everything about Daryl’s demeanor showed shame as he keeps his eyes down, avoiding her gaze.

“That was pretty ruthless.” She admits.

Daryl seems to huddle himself even more, like the words were physically hurting him. 

“Don’t’ say that.” He whispers again as he finally looks at her.

“Well, shit; You’re a bit soft for a redneck, man.” She says, playing it cool, but the vulnerability that Daryl showed to her did unsettle her.

“Beau.” He scolds her in an exasperate sigh. 

“Sorry, I meant hick.” 

“I take it back, I ain’t sorry no more.” 

Beau laugh quietly as they carry on their round peacefully, until Rick came to them to take over.  
They both walk back to Daryl’s campsite, entering their tent awkwardly as they both turn towards their makeshift beds, back to back. Beau goes to removes her shorts when Daryl’s voice interrupts her. 

“Want me to wait outside?” 

“Nah, don’t give a damn.” She removes her shorts and slides herself in her sleeping bag as she turns towards the surface of the tent, her back to him. 

She can hear Daryl ruffling with his clothes before sliding himself in bed too. He finally switches off the lantern on the floor between them, the only sources of light in the tent and the silence falls on them as they awkwardly listen to each other’s breathing.

“What gave it up?” She whispers after sometimes and Daryl frowns, confused as he lays on his back, an arm folded under his head, his eyes wide open in the dark, towards the ceiling of the tent.

Beau is still on her side, turned towards the surface of the tent, her eyes open as she holds one of her bear’s leg, outside her sleeping bag.

“That I’m not a boy.” She whispers again like the words were hard to get out, something in the way she said it sounded almost childish. 

Daryl exhales deeply though the nose.

“Felt it.” 

“I don’t wanna be a girl.” 

“’s okay you don’t hafta be.” 

“Does anyone else know?” 

Daryl sighs, like he expected and dreaded that question. 

“Rick knows. Had to tell him. He won’t say anythin’.” 

Beau nods despite the fact that Daryl couldn’t actually see her and the silence falls on them once more. 

“Thanks for not telling everyone.” 

“Make sure China Boy don’t find out, he tends to run his mouth.”

“Pretty sure he said he’s Korean.”

“Smartass.” 

“Hush now, Ellijay.”

“Night, child.”


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

“Let’s get one thing straight, this isn’t a democracy anymore!” Rick growls as he looks at each one of them. 

The silence was deafening as their little group were forming a circle in the darkness and the cold, around an improvised campfire. The tension was palpable, every single one of them were exhausted, cold and frightened. Carl was crying sat down in between his mother’s legs while Beth was hiding in her father’s arms. Glenn, Maggie and Carol were sat down too, holding their own arms around themselves to try and keep warm while T-Dog was standing up on a rock, keeping watch while holding a rifle. Daryl was standing up, holding his crossbow in his left hand, the muzzle of it touching the ground, he was leaning his back against a tree, his right foot against it as he smoked a cigarette. Only the end of his cigarette was visible, a bright flamboyant orange as he dragged on it; his eyes not leaving Beau’s figure as the teenager was circling nervously around the little group, over and over again, her hand twitching around her gun in an edgy fashion as her own eyes scrutinized the pitch black horizon. 

Over the weeks, Beau got more or less accepted within the group. She was not communicating much, mumbling short answers and fist bumping whoever before and after a job. She was keeping a low profile and as promised she was running errands with Glenn and Maggie, usually letting them go in one direction as she left in another by herself, skimming the area for her brother while bringing back food, medicines, clothes or anything required to the camp. After taking a few watches with Daryl and a few other with Rick, they trusted her enough to take watch by herself, against Shane’s say.  
Daryl and Beau grew used to each other and people noticed how the hot-headed teenager would discreetly look at him for some sort of approval anytime someone from the group, even Rick, were asking her to do something. The group understood that Daryl alone seemed to have some sort of hold onto her.  
One night Dale got bit and from there, everything seemed to spiral down.  
The farm was gone, taken over by a horde of walkers. They tried to defend the farm but eventually they all had to run and abandoned it. Beau had run to their tent to grabs her stuffs back, including her bear, gunning down walkers on her way. When she came out, hundreds of walkers had invaded the farmland, the barn was on fire and she could see most of the group driving away in cars. Out of nowhere, Daryl came into her field of vision as he rode his bike towards her.

“Come on, we don’t got all day.” He shouted on top of the motor’s rumbling noise as Beau did not hesitate and sat behind him, the bear on her back and her .45 in her hand still. She held onto him as they rode away, until the sun rose. 

They all found each other’s on the highway and discovered that Shane and Andrea did not make it and if Beau was completely honest, she could not care less. They drove until sun set and decided to stop to find a place to camp for the night as everyone was getting tired. Autumn had past and even though the days were still warm, the nights were cold and none of them had warm clothes. Daryl and Beau got the campfire going and all of them tried to warm up around it, they were scared, terrified even, and very quickly silent accusations were thrown to Rick; Carol asking him to do something as panic was written all over her face. Beau did not want any part in this shit show as she did not need nor care about any of them; being back on the road made her feel high on adrenaline despite her fatigue and she started walking in circle around the group.

“I’ve killed my best friend for you, people!” She heard Rick shout as she carried on, imperturbable. She could hear a few of them gasps, shocked as he explained himself through the cries of his son. 

She could feel Daryl’s eyes on her, but she couldn’t stop her obsessive behavior as she could feel the semblance of stability, she got back from being at the farm, slipping away from her. After another defensive crisis of hers, back at the farm, she had heard Hershel telling the rest of the group that being alone in the streets for so long would destroy anyone’s mind, especially being as young as her and in those circumstances. She remembers Lori telling Rick she wasn’t reassured to have an unstable teenage boy within the group but before he could answer anything, Daryl had jump to her defense and eventually people had accepted her somehow, getting Daryl when Beau showed signs of a violent break down.  
After Rick outburst, the quietness came back around the group.

“Daryl.” Ricks calls out, his voice strained from stress, fatigue and shouting, as he tilts his head towards Beau.

Daryl sighs as he puffs one more time on his cigarette before throwing it to the ground. He pushes himself off the tree he was leaning against before throwing his crossbow on his back as he steps in front of Beau, forcing her to stop walking in a circle like a mad man. He plants himself in front of her firmly, as he puts two gentle hands on her shoulders to get her attention. 

“Hey, kid. Slow down, yer makin’ everybody dizzy here.” He says quietly as their eyes meet and he can see how her eyes are wide open and shiny, making him feel uneasy as she looked like she was high on meth or like someone who lost their mind completely. 

“We’re too much in the open. It ain’t safe.” She says as she nervously wipes her nose with the back of her hand. God, she was really a boy sometimes, he thought. 

Daryl takes a quick look at the group to see if anyone was looking at them but fortunately, they all seem to sleepily look at the campfire without really seeing it, the reality of their situation hitting them hard. His right hand comes to cup the side of her face, resting cautiously on her cheek, in an intimate manner.

“Beau. -He calls out to her, discreetly, to keep her focused. -I got ya.” He adds, his face tilting downwards to hers. Their eyes lock and something seem to pass between them, before Beau nods to him, his hand still on her cheek. Beau catches his eyes drifting slightly to her lips and she slaps his hand away from her cheek, in a quick but nonaggressive fashion. 

“Stop insisting, Dixon; I won’t be your boyfriend.” She whispers as she turns her head to the side, scanning the horizon carefully; making Daryl snorts amused as he drops his hands to his sides. 

“I don’t bat fer tha’ team anyway.” 

“Coulda fool me.” She answers playfully, unconsciously picking up his southern accent. 

The silence falls on them and Beau rubs her arms together as she started to feel cold, now that she had vaguely calmed down. 

“Go sit next to the fire. - He orders gently but Beau frowns, making him sighs. She did not like direct orders and instantly, it was like having the Beau he met at the farm, defensive and anguish. – Please. T is on watch but Imma keep an eye out, ight.” 

Their eyes meet and Beau sighs, finally giving in, as she nods and walk towards the little group. She still did not feel completely comfortable being alone around the group and she felt rather nervous when Daryl was not around. She comes to sit on a wooden log near Rick and the heat of the fire burns her face; they drove all day and haven’t had any food for almost two days. She gets two cereals bars out from her backpack that she still hadn’t eat and two apples; those never got out of her backpack as it was the only food she took when she was running errands. At the sound of food packaging, most of them looks up at her and she counts how many of them there are. It was going to be difficult to feed them all on such a little amount of food but she ends up opening the first bar of cereal and cut it in three uneven pieces, offering the first piece to Carl who refuses it as he hides his face again in Lori’s neck. 

“Thank you. - Lori whispers as she accepts the piece of cereal bar with an apologetic smile and Beau shrugs it off. -You got to eat, Carl.” She adds towards her son. 

Beau gives the second piece to Beth who accepts it with a little smile on her lips despite the redness of her eyes and then gives the last piece to Maggie. She breaks the second cereal bar again into three pieces and offers the first one to Lori, who shakes her head.

“I’m okay.” 

“You…You got a baby.” Beau mutters shyly and after some hesitation, Lori accepts it with a little smile. 

Beau gives a piece to Carol and then to Hershel. She opens her switchblades and cuts the first apple in half, giving half of it to Glenn before standing up and walking towards T-Dog and giving him the other half. She finally goes to sit back down and manages to cut the last apple into three even pieces, giving a piece to Rick as she eats the second one, keeping the last piece in her lap.  
Daryl finally comes back to the campsite and as he walks towards the fire, he goes to stand behind Beau, his legs touching her back. This one lifts her hand up in the air, without turning around, and Daryl grabs gently the quarter of apple from her hand before eating it in two bites. 

“’Area’s clear fer now.” He mumbles. 

“Thanks, Daryl. -Rick says as he stands up and claps a hand on Daryl’s back. -We gonna keep someone on watch all night. T-Dog, you’re on first watch, Daryl you …”

“I can take second watch; I won’t be able to sleep anyway.” Beau cuts him off and Rick looks at her for a second before nodding. 

“Beau, you take second watch; I’ll take the last watch. Daryl, we’re gonna need food, maybe…” 

“Ya got it.” Daryl cuts him off, as he chews on his thumb before nodding. 

That night none of them managed to sleep much or at all, except for Carl and Beth who managed to fall asleep, their faces hidden in the necks of their parent.

Seven mouths.

That’s how long they were on the road, going from houses to houses to score some food and a semblance of security. They managed to survive on the little amount of food they found, but it was far from enough, they all looked slender and sickly. They traveled with two cars, a pick-up truck and Daryl’s bike; and Beau grew used to ride with Daryl. They struggled to stay in one place as more geeks seemed to roam the earth and they were too many of them to fight them off, so they ran. They were starved, exhausted and frightened but they found gas and guns regularly; being forced to be on the move at all time made them vulnerable which obliged Maggie and Carol to step up and protect the group too.  
Beau turned out to be a pretty good sniper after they found one in some redneck’s house and she was picked to be on watch pretty much every night. 

Pretending to be a boy was exhausting. Even though, Rick and Daryl knew Beau was actually a girl, that wasn’t the case for the rest of the group, as they all still believed Beau was a teenaged boy and this one had to keep up with appearances, which was physically very demanding. She had to protect the rest of the group as much as Daryl, Glenn or T-Dog, clearing houses, running errands and keeping watch. She not only had lost weight, but she became even leaner.  
The last seven mouths pushed Beau to become closer to the group; she was often keeping watch with Carl, playing the older brother and she even found herself protecting Beth on multiple occasions. The girl seemed even more fond of her now as she would often bring her some extra food for the long night when Beau was on watch. Beau was not so awkward anymore when the blond-haired girl was hugging her, but each time Beth was getting tactile with her, she could feel Daryl’s eyes on her.  
Something changed between Daryl and Beau, but no one could truly say what. They kept their habits to sleep near each other as Beau was often found asleep, her head on Daryl’s shoulder or chest; at the beginning the rest of the group looked at them curiously but eventually they got used to it, not looking for any explanation. Over the seven mouths past on road, the dynamic between them seemed to change, as Beau would take her distance with Daryl during the day, or if he comes to close to her. Daryl was confused by the change in her behavior, but he gave space to the teenager whenever she made him feel like he was too much. She wouldn’t say anything, but she would walk away.  
In the meantime, Daryl became close to Carol as those two were often seen talking and eating together. 

Rick and Daryl found a prison and they had to fight their way in as walkers were everywhere; Rick would run to the second gate of the prison to lock it as they would clear the entire prison’s courtyard first and camp there overnight. Everyone had the job to kill as many walkers as possible while keeping Rick safe, Beau was shooting her sniper from one of the towers. Once the entire courtyard cleared, they walked in excited to finally have a safe place to sleep at night; Carol was even skipping around claiming it was the first time in mouth they had so much space to walk around and it was true. Now thinking about it, they had spent the last seven mouths glued to each other’s, keeping each other’s safe and Beau had to admit it was nice to be able to take her distance with the group again.  
T-Dog and Glenn lit up a campfire while Rick was walking around the enclosure, making sure it was safe. Daryl went hunting in the nearby forest to catch them some dinner while Beau was on watch, standing up on top of an overturned prison bus, a sniper in her hand. Daryl came back with a few squirrels and Maggie and Lori hurried themselves to cook it over the fire as this one came to climb on the overturned prison bus to join Beau.  
He threw his crossbow on top of it before pulling himself up.

“Nice poncho, man.” Beau mumbles in a mocking tone. 

“Ya’ll see, yer gon’ beg to borrow it.” 

At that Beau rolled her eyes as she carries on, walking up and down the bus. Daryl looked at her bear backpack which was sat down cautiously on the edge on the bus, like he would be looking at the rest of the group, afar from them. He caught her stretching her neck on one side, while one of her hand comes to massage her shoulder’s muscle. 

“How ya doin’?” He asks as he chews on his thumb. 

“’m dead, you?” 

“Yer in pain?” He asks worriedly as he comes closer to her.

Beau hums her answer, ignoring him as she looks into the horizon, despite feeling him standing merely two inches away from her. Daryl knew this was a sign for him to back off, but he decides against it as he throws his crossbow on his back carefully and puts both his hands on her shoulders near her neck. He can feel her tense instantly and he freezes, not daring to move his hands.

“Is it painful here?” He asks quietly as he stands behind her while starting to massage her shoulders firmly as he can feel the tight knots underneath his fingers. 

“Yeah.” She whispers, timidly as she let her head fall downwards and Daryl can feel her relax. 

The moment is quite intimate; the rest of the group is relatively far away from them and the darkness of the night brings them some privacy. Beau can hear her heartbeat quicken and she can feel her hands getting sweaty as she cautiously steps back onto Daryl’s body, her back touching his chest and her ass against his crotch. She can feel Daryl freeze in her back, his hands stopping as both their respiration become slightly ragged. Beau’s mouth is a little agape and dry from nervousness as she leans more onto him, her back completely resting against his chest. His hands fall to his sides for a few seconds as Beau can feel his chest rising quickly under his laborious respiration. He finally rises his hands to her hips, pulling them towards him even more, pressing her ass on his crotch gently and at that sensation they both seem to struggle breathing even more. 

“Ya okay?” He asks, his voice hoarse as he tilts his head down and towards her, his lips near her ear and his cheek to her hair. 

Before she can answer, they both jump with a start as they turn towards the sound of metal hitting the top of the prison bus. Beth was pulling herself up on top of the bus, after putting two plates full of squirrel’s meat on the metallic surface and Beau pulls herself off of Daryl rapidly and pushing him away from the palm of her hand, before giving a hand to Beth. 

“Are you guys okay up there? I thought I bring you some food.” The blond-haired says sweetly as she pushes the plates into their hands.

Beau coughs a little as she tried to process what had just happened. 

“Thanks, B.” She says, not daring to look at Daryl who seemed pretty quiet himself. 

Beth beamed under the nickname.

“It’s nothing, thank you for looking after us.” She says with a gentle smile as her big blue eyes did not leave Beau.

“I really hope we can stay here, it’s a great place for Lori to have the baby.” She adds and Beau simply nods as she mentally screamed at herself for doing something as stupid as leaning into the hick in such a sexual way.

“Did you eat?” Beau asks just to fill up the conversation. 

“Yes, you don’t have to worry about me.” She says as she puts a gentle hand on Beau’s arm.

That one nods and when Beth understood she won’t get anything else from Beau, she wishes them a good night before climbing down the bus and walking back to the fire camp, leaving Beau and Daryl in an overwhelming silence. Beau was not dared to turn around as she felt Daryl’s eyes on her.

“Does she know yer a girl?” The question was not aggressive but there was something underlying there, and Beau couldn’t quite read it.

“’course no.” Beau says as she finally turns around and look at him and when she does, their eyes lock. 

“Don’t ya think ya might’ve to tell her?”

“What am I supposed to say? Sorry B, you can't get the D ‘cause I don’t have it.” 

That answer seems to surprise him as he laughs a genuine and amused laugh, before he starts eating as he sits down on the edge of the bus, his legs floating over the edge. Beau decides to mimic him and sits next to him, her bear backpack sitting next to her. The silence comes back, but it was not awkward somehow, more like they were lost in their own thoughts and after a few minutes, Daryl pushes the now empty metal dish to the side as he clears his throat. 

“You’re mad?” Beau asks, keeping her eyes to her food and she feels his eyes boring into her.

“No. ‘m more mad at myself.” He admits quietly. 

“Why?” 

“Yer a kid. -He shrugs like it was obvious. –‘m much older than ya, sunshine.” He sighs as he looks ahead of him, both his hands flat to the surface of the bus behind him, resting on them as he leans himself slightly backward. 

“Is that it?” She asks as she puts her empty plate to the side, and she looks at him.

“What else would there be?” He asks back, turning his head to her and their eyes lock. 

“The fact that I look like a boy.” She says like it was obvious.

“That’s not what I see.” He says it in such a way it was clear he didn’t care about that.

“So, what do you see then?” 

He sighs; this could go both ways so easily and he knows he needs to choose the words carefully.

“In some messed up way, I’d say me; not only at yer age but until recently. Sometimes it’s like lookin’ in a mirror.”

Beau inhales deeply through the nose as she nods.

Yes, she did see it too and most people from the group drew the parallel between them. She was like a teenage girl version of Daryl Dixon. 

“Is that a bad thing?” 

He inhales through the nose deeply as he lays himself down on the surface of the bus, his legs still hanging over the edge, his arms crossed underneath his head as he looks ahead at the sky. Beau mimics him again and they both looks at the stars in the dark sky.

“It’s not. I think I get ya more than anybody else.” 

Beau shuffles herself so their bodies touch and she swing her leg in the air playfully, forcing Daryl to do the same with the leg that touches hers. 

“Stop that.” He growls.

Beau stops and she turns on her side, towards him, as she holds herself up on her elbow, allowing her to look at his face. He ignores her for a little bit, his eyes to the sky before drifting to her face, which floats on top of him. 

“What?” He asks in a low and gruff voice. 

Beau does not answer but leans into him so to kiss him, but Daryl stops her.

“Don’t.” He says, lowly.

Beau sits up and comes to sit on her knees, towards him, her knees digging into his side as she leans back into him quickly, her hands on each one of his folded arms, holding him to the ground, putting most of her weight. She reaches for his lips and they barely brush that Daryl sits up using his core and pushing away her hands like she weighted nothing. 

“’The fuck, Beau?” He growls with a frown. 

“It’s fine, I turned twenty about three months ago.” 

He opens his mouth to contradict her reasoning, but nothing comes up; instead a frown draws itself between his eyebrows as he locks eyes with her.

“Is that why ya were distant?” 

Beau shrugs nonchalantly as she turns to look afar. 

“Talk to me.” He begs quietly.

“Among other things, I guess. I don’t know, man, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I don’t have all my head sometimes.” 

“’m good at refocusing ya but it was different; ya were runnin’ from me.” 

“I don’t wanna care about any of you and things with you are tricky.” 

“How so?” 

“I've grown to need you. I’m always looking for you.” She admits in a whisper.

“’don’t mind ya needed me. I got yer back, you know that.” 

The silence falls on them.

“Why can’t I kiss you?” Beau asks and she sounded very much like a brat which made Daryl snort sarcastically. 

“Yer young, it doesn’t feel right.” 

“’m not a teen anymore, I won’t give you the cooties.” 

He laughs genuinely at that comment.

“How old are you anyway?” She asks. 

“Thirty-seven.” 

“Yeah, you’re right, it’s kinda gross, my bad.” She grimaces before standing up and taking her bear.

“Where ya goin’?” He says as he leans towards her and grabs her leg to prevent her from leaving.

“Find someone else to have my first kiss with.” 

He laughs at the childish threat despite the fact that his heart missed a beat when she said, ‘first kiss’. 

“And who is it gonna be?” He says playing along.

“’Don’t know, prolly Beth. I got something for Rick though, I ain’t gonna lie; now that his wedding is down the drain, I might as well try. Guess I just got something for older man.” She plays slyly as she takes another step away.

He would probably never admit it but her mentioning liking Rick and kissing him, made him feel sick to his stomach, bile rising to his throat as a mix of anger and jealousy ran through his veins. She steps away again and again and as she goes to climb down the bus, but he finally calls her. 

“Beau. Com’ere.” He says, looking at her, still sat down as he extends his hand out towards her. 

She comes back to him.

“What?” 

“Sit down.” He says mentioning the spot next to him and she obeys him this time, placing her bear back where it was. 

He lays back down on the surface on the bus in the exact same position he was, his legs hanging over the edge, arms crossed underneath his head. For her part, Beau is not sure what to do next as she sits next to him, looking at the fire camp afar from them. She jumps slightly when she feels Daryl’s hand on her lower back, his thumb stroking her gently in a relaxing manner. 

“Com’ere, bubsy.” He says as he grabs her arm carefully and pulling her towards him gently. 

“Don’t call me stupid name, I ain’t no chick.” Beau bites not too aggressively, more like a warning, making Daryl smirk as she leans on top of him. 

If Daryl was honest, he wasn’t too sure what he was doing. He lost his virginity with a hooker that Merle had pre-paid for him when he was seventeen and then the only girls, he managed to score were a few vulgar drunk girls that weren’t picky, and he usually fucked them hard in the back alley of some shit town bar. He was not proud of it, but Daryl had paid for sex more than he managed to pick up girls. 

He looks at Beau and he can tell she is nervous, licking her lips and her breathing seemed irregular. He cups her face with his left hand, his thumb stroking gently her cheek as he uses his core to sit up a little and meet her lips. The kiss is chaste and simple, and he slowly lays back down, without leaving her lips as he drags her down on him slowly and carefully. His head resting on the surface of the bus as Beau holds herself on top of him. He opens his mouth and his tongue comes to caress Beau’s lips, making her back away suddenly.

“Ew gross, don’t do that, man.” She says as she wipes her mouth, disgusted; making Daryl laughs. 

“Ya don’t want anymore?” He asks as he sits up as well, looking at her.

“You’re on top this time.” She says as she quickly lays herself down, her arms resting on each side of herself, looking at him expectedly. 

A child. She was a child. He’s pretty sure he fucked some eighteen years old before that were more mature than that.

He leans down into her, holding himself with two strong arms framing her head, as their lips reconnect, Daryl does not waste any time as he opens his mouth and licks her lips, pushing her to open her own mouth. Beau goes to turn her face on the side to escape the sloppy kiss, but Daryl’s hand comes to hold her face gently but with a certain firmness to it, holding her in place. Her hands come to grab his shoulders and she pushes on them, trying to push him away from her, without much success.

“Beau. ‘s okay.” He whispers, his voice hoarse, their lips touching. He kisses her again and this time he can feel her open her mouth timidly, but it is enough for him to push his tongue inside her mouth, his tongue looking for hers, caressing it slowly and softly.  
The kiss last quite sometimes as Beau relaxes into the embrace, getting bolder each time they separate and go back at it. Daryl finally lets himself fall next to her, holding his head up using his left arm, looking at her as his right hand comes to stroke her stomach up and down in a calming manner.

“Daryl.” Rick calls out, in some sort of whispered scream. 

“Shit. -Daryl mumbles as he sits up, looking over the edge of the bus. -What’s up?” 

“Are you guys falling asleep up there? I want someone on watch at all time.” 

“Ya got it, man.” He says as he stands up and picks up his crossbow from the surface. 

“I’ll take second watch.” 

“Ight.” He nods towards Rick who nods back before walking back to the fire. 

Beau sits up too, ready to stand up and pick up her rifle but Daryl crouches next to her. 

“Wanna catch some sleep while I keep watch? I don’t mind.” 

Beau hesitates and Daryl knows she doesn’t want to look like a girl if she says she wants to sleep. Before hearing her answer, he removes his poncho and wraps it around her.

“Sleep, kid.” He says firmly, not giving her an option.

Beau finally nods as she grabs her bear and spoons him so she can sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

“Shit, I’m gonna hurl.” Beau says as she gags and turns away from the dead jail guard that had his skin stuck to his smoke mask. She leans onto the wall of the prison, both hands spread on it, above her head before throwing up. 

Daryl walks to her and place a reassuring hand in her lower back, in a sympathetic manner.

“Ya alright?” He says, not worrying about the eyes of Rick, T-dog, Glenn or Maggie on them. 

“Get off me!” Beau growls as she shoves him away, hard. 

Daryl stumbles back a little and genuine shock and hurt can be seen of his face for a second, quickly replace by a defensive demeanor. 

“Fuck you, Montgomery!” He spits as he walks off.

Beau can hear the creepy creaking sound of the heavy jail door being opened cautiously before Rick gets inside the building, followed by the rest of them as she stays against the wall, waiting for her stomach to settle down. 

She spits on the floor a few times and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. 

“Shit” She whispers, before joining the little group inside the jail to finish clearing it. 

Once Rick deemed the prison secure enough, the rest of the group came in and took over the cells as Daryl claimed the perch, dragging a mattress from a cell on it. Daryl seemed upset with Beau as he ignored her the whole time, not even looking in her direction. Beau sighs quietly as she looks at him. She does not know where to sleep so she stands on the mezzanine of the prison, looking at the different cells and then back at the perch where Daryl was already laid down. The silence filled up the prison rather quickly as everybody was settling in; Rick sat down by himself on the ground floor as Beau stood awkwardly, shuffling on her feet, unsure of what to do next. All she wanted was to drag a mattress from a random cell and place it near Daryl’s makeshift bed, but she wasn’t sure the country man wanted her around right now. 

Why was she tip toeing around this guy? It’s almost like she was scared to approach him, right now. 

She frowns as she walks inside a random cell on the first floor and inspect the mattress on the bottom bed. Once satisfied that it was not too gross, she drags it to the floor and pulls it to the perch to finally drop it next to Daryl’s mattress. This one lifts himself up on both elbows, still laying down as he looks at her. 

“The fuck ya doin’? Yer not scared people gonna see us together?” He spits at her.

Daryl can read shock on her face as a frown draws itself between her eyebrows. 

“What?” 

“What? Is that not what happened today? Ya freaked out ‘cause I touch ya in front of them?” 

“It’s not like that, man.” She sighs as she lets herself fall on her mattress, after sitting her bear backpack next to it. 

“Yeah, right.” He growls as he folds his arms underneath his head to rest it, his eyes to the ceiling. 

“Dude, I was being sick. I don’t know I don’t like being approached when I’m vulnerable, that’s it.” 

She sighs when he doesn’t answer anything back.

“Look, I’m sorry, ight. I could’ve handled that better.” She adds and she lays down on her side, towards him. She places her hand on his stomach cautiously, in an intimate manner and he flinches under her touch. 

“And to be honest, I think they know you’re kinda gay for me already.” She tries to say playfully, and it works as Daryl snort mockingly. 

A few seconds passes as the silence surround them; the moment somewhat intimate. Daryl finally turns towards her as he looks at her. 

“What about ya? Ya gay fer me?” He whispers and his vulnerability hits Beau, hard. 

She can feel her heartbeat getting louder and her hands getting wet from nervousness. She swallows hard before opening her mouth in order to say something, but no sounds seem to come out. Daryl takes her hesitation for an answer and Beau can read a flash of hurt on his face before being replace by some sort of resignation. 

“’s ‘kay, kiddo. -He whispers to her before sitting up and grabbing his cigarette’s pack in the little pocket on the front of his shirt. He puts one cigarette between his lips before standing up and grabbing his crossbow. – ‘m going fer a smoke.” His words slightly muffled by the hanging cigarette. 

Beau had sat up too and she looks at him leave the cell block after having to explain himself to Rick, angering him. 

“Fuck.” She sighs as she covers her face with both her hands. 

“What? -She asks, looking at her bear backpack. -I ain’t no coward.” 

She growls, irritated as she stands up. 

“Fine. Whatever you say.” She says towards her bear, before taking her gun and leaving the cell block too, after receiving the same safety speech from Rick. 

The sun was setting slowly, and Beau finds the weather much more enjoyable. She looks around but there weren’t any signs of Daryl. She decides to walk around the compound to try and find the hick; she walks for a while, enough for the sun to be pretty much set, plunging Georgia in the dim light of the evening. A walker, behind the fences, grabs her attention, it’s a young man, probably a high schooler or a freshman, he’s wearing a college baseball coat, one similar to Brady’s high school coat. She stops dead in her tracks as a violent feeling of sadness run through her, taking her by the throat; it was like an iron grip around her throat making it hard to breath and swallow her own saliva.  
A broken sob escapes her, and her breathing sounds restrained, like she was having an asthma attack. She becomes hysterical for a few seconds, incapable of stopping the overwhelming sorrow spreading through her. 

“No. No. It’s okay.” She mumbles to herself as she wipes her nose with the back of her hand.

She grunts, annoyed, as she wipes the tears from her eyes with her XL t-shirt. 

“No. It’s okay, you got this.” She mumbles to herself, her breathing pretty much back to normal. 

“Who yer talkin’ to?” She hears the hick asked, behind her, making her jump. Shit, she forgot he is a tracker and the guy’s feet were like feather on the ground. 

“Shit. Don’t scare me like that, yo.” She bites nonaggressive, her voice strained from crying, as she turns around towards him. Daryl looks at her suspiciously as he can see the redness of her eyes, her lips swollen and red. 

“Why yer cryin’ fer?” He asks quietly, getting another cigarette out of his pack and lighting it up. 

“What? Dude, you gotta stop smoking the grass, uh. I ain’t crying.” She sniffles and wipes her nose once again.

“Uh uh. -He mumbles, unconvinced, as he drags on his cigarette, making the tip burn. -What are ya doin’ out here, anyway?” 

“I was looking for you.” Her voice still sounds broken and she coughs to try clearing it.

Daryl nods, the silence surrounding them. Beau notices how good he was at calming her down; the way he carried himself around her, his voice gruff and low, smoking slowly on his cigarette, it was like he could create some sort of protective bubble around them at any time. Everything seemed to slow down inside that bubble and the rest of the world appeared blurred out; she could only see him in those moment. 

She steps towards him and grabs his cigarette from his lips gently, putting it between her own lips and takes a drag from it. She wasn’t a smoker and the smoke burn her throat, but she refuses to cough like some teenager smoking their first joint. She takes another drag before giving it back to him. This one takes it back and Beau leans into him, resting her head on his chest, snaking her arms around him tightly. Daryl throws away the cigarette butt to the ground and he hugs her back, kissing the top of her head.

“I’m lonely.” Beau says, her voice muffled by Daryl’s shirt.

“Ya got me.” 

“It’s like I’ve been split in two sometimes. I can barely breath.” Her voice breaks again, and she starts wheezing.

She can feel Daryl squeezing her tightly. 

“Calm down, I got ya. We’ll find him.” 

They stay like that until Beau’s breathing comes back to normal and by then, the night had fallen on them, leaving them in the dark. Beau tilts her head up and she has to tip toe to reach Daryl’s lips; this one having to bend his knees so she can reach him. She kisses him and Daryl allow her to slip her tongue in his mouth; the kiss is slow, and Daryl has both his hands on her face, holding her head gently, his thumb caressing her cheek. They stop kissing for a second, the time for them to catch their breath, and Beau bumps her nose gently to his, in a cuddly and affectionate manner. She puts both her hands on his chest, feeling him; she goes to kiss him again and Daryl lets her. She slides one of her hand down his chest slowly, in a caressing manner and she can feel Daryl’s muscles flinch when she reaches his lower abdomen. She doesn’t dare move her hands any lower and Daryl sense her hesitation. 

“I guess I am kinda gay for you too. -She admits in a quiet voice; she refuses to look at him, but she fists bumps him in the stomach gently, trying to play it cool. -But I don’t know anything about this shit, so you’ll have to teach me.” 

“Tea..teachin’ ya?” The words get caught up in his throat. She couldn’t mean…

“Well, yeah, I’ve never done anything, so you’ll have to come and get it, ‘cause I don’t really know where to start, man.” 

Daryl is pretty sure he just swallowed his own saliva in the wrong way after what he just heard. He coughs a few times. 

“Beau.” He croaks as he takes a step back.

“What? You can’t freak out on me now. -She says as she steps towards him, closing the small gap he created. -I just put myself out there for you, man.” 

“But like now?” He asks, not believing he was having this conversation. 

“What? You don’t wanna?” She asks, taking a step back, her face falling slightly in disappointment. Her insecurities coming back to her as she shuffles awkwardly on her feet. 

“No, ‘course I want. I always want ya, Beau.” He adds, feeling Beau’s distress, taking a step towards her and placing one hand on her hip and the other one on her cheek. 

He looks around the compound, squinting his eyes to adapt them to the darkness and his eyes stops on the prison tower. He exhales through his nose and bites his lips, thoughtful.  
He readjusts his crossbow on his shoulder before grabbing Beau’s hand in his.

“Ya sure?” 

“Yeah.” 

He starts walking towards the tower, dragging Beau behind him. They climb to the top of it and Daryl closes the door behind him, dropping his crossbow to the ground vertically, resting it against the wall and the muzzle to the ground; before turning around to face Beau who stands awkwardly in the middle of the tower. He scratches the back of his neck in a nervous fashion, his mouth dry as he observes the teenager, her hands in the pockets of her oversized shorts. Her hair was still short like a boy and cut at different length; she had found a pair of scissors when they were on the road and regularly cut her own hair. Looking at her now, she really looked like a boy, even her attitude was on point, but Daryl couldn’t see her as one anymore, he could catch all her feminine traits now, making it impossible to see the boy she was hiding behind. He takes a deep breath and leans himself against the door of the tower, his back and right foot to it; with two fingers he motions her to come to him.

“Com’ere.” He says, his voice hoarse and low. 

She wipes her nose with the back of hand in a boyish fashion, pretending to be nonchalant before she obliges and comes to him. She stands there for a second before Daryl puts both hands on her hips, pulling her to him, their body touching each other’s. He presses her against his crotch and kisses her deeply, his tongue dominating hers completely. One of his hand hold Beau’s face firmly and she can feel him already hard in his black jeans. Beau grabs onto his muscly arms that are visible as he wears a rather fitted dark blue shirt with ripped sleeves. They separate so they can catch a breath and he grab her ass confidently with both hands, pushing her even closer and thrust against her.

He swirls her around gently so her back is against his chest, one of his arm snakes around her, slightly underneath her chest to keep her strongly in place. Her ass is pressed against his clothed dick and she can feel herself getting wet. 

“Daryl.” She says unsure of that position as she tries to step forward, but he doesn’t let her, tightening his hold on her. 

He plunges his face in her neck, kissing and biting it as his other hand slides down her thighs, going up and down slowly. 

“s’okay, baby.” He says lowly. 

His hand comes to cup her clothes pussy and Beau’s breathing becomes slightly ragged. He caresses her on top of her clothes, before slowly sliding inside her short and his fingers finds her naked pussy. None of them wore underwear anymore really. His fingers play with her lips for a bit before he pushes one finger inside her. Beau stops breathing as she slowly gets used to the new sensation. He pushes his finger in and out as he also plays with her clit, making her wetter.

“Ya okay?” He asks, his voice hoarse. 

Beau hums her answer, not sure she was able to voice anything. She slowly reaches behind her, trying to press her hand on his dick.

“Wanna touch me, baby?” He says to her ears.

“Yeah.” She answers simply.

He swirls her around gently again, so she was now facing him again as he was still pressed against the door; he let her open his trousers with shaky hands and his hard dick springs out as soon as she opens the zipper. Beau observes it for a little as it’s the first time she sees a man completely naked, she cannot tell if he’s big or not, but she thinks it’s a good size. Daryl gently takes her hand in his and puts it around his cock, momentarily cutting off his breathing under the sensation of having her hand touching him. He guides her as he jerks himself off slowly, her hand underneath his, making him grunt and moan at the same time, a very masculine sound that makes Beau’s legs weak. She slowly takes over and jack him off, both their mouth agape and their respiration ravaged. She loves the sensation of his cock in her hand, the heat and the weight of it fitting her well. Seeing him so undone makes her wants him even more; eventually Daryl grabs her wrist to stop her and he kisses her again before dropping on his knees in front of her. He removes her shorts, exposing her completely to him and Beau steps backwards when she understands what he is about to do. 

“Don’t. I’m not clean.” She says, ashamed, as she covers her face with both her hands.

Daryl laughs a quiet laugh.

“’s okay, I don’t mind.” He says as he grabs her thighs, pulling her to him. 

As soon as his lips are on her pussy, he can feel her tense and backing off, but he holds her in place firmly as he starts licking her off. Little by little she relaxes and eventually she starts pulling on his hair, getting him to look at her.

“I want it.” She whispers and he nods. He removes his shirt and spread it on the floor, crouching next to it. Beau mimics him as she removes her oversized t-shirt and gives it to him so he can spread it too. He finally taps on the t-shirt and Beau sits naked on it, facing him and in no time, Daryl is on her, kissing her deeply, pushing her on her back, laying her down on the spread clothes. 

He lays on top of her, between her opened legs, and Beau is surprised to love and enjoy the weight of his body on hers; finding it reassuring. He is holding himself on top of her with both folded arms around her head as he kisses her and thrust his naked cock to her wet pussy, making them pant. 

“Fuck, do it already, man.” She bites, impatient. 

He snorts mockingly as he kisses her neck and he push inside her, making her tense under the pain. He goes as deep as possible but do not move. Beau stops breathing for a second or two, just the time to get use to the sensation. 

“Shit. Ya so fuckin’ tight, Baby Beau.” His voice is strained under the effort.

“It hurts like a bitch.” She hisses.

“Want me to stop?” He says ready to come out.

“No, it’s cool. Keep going, but don’t get me preggers, okay?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll pull out.” He says before kissing her and starting thrusting, making her wince.

She slowly gets used to it, the pain growing numb as she let a moan escape her when Daryl reach down with his hand to play with her clit. He carries on until she pushes his hand away and tries to close her legs.

“Stop that, it’s too much. I’m going to piss myself.” She says, out of breath, making Daryl laugh.

“No, babes, that’s normal. Means yer ‘bout to cum, just let go.” He reaches down again, ignoring her.

Eventually she relaxes and comes all around him; Daryl can feel her pussy contract all over him, bringing him to the edge too. He suddenly pulls out of her and comes all over her belly.  
They are both out of breath and Daryl uses his last strength to kiss her while holding himself on top of her to finally drop next to her. They are both sweaty and breathing hard as Beau looks down on her soaked belly.

“Eww…Gross, man.” She says grimacing. 

Daryl sits up, grabbing his jeans from the floor to look for his red bandana in the back pocket. He uses it to clean Beau’s belly. 

“Sorry ‘bout that.” He says, bashful now. 

“I hope there are showers in that damn prison.” She says before laying down completely on the floor. 

Daryl nods and he picks a cigarette from his pack and lays back down, next to her, lighting it up. He throws an arm underneath her head, raisin it like a pillow and Beau curls into him. 

“Did ya like it?” He asks as he drags on his cigarette.

“Yeah, it was alright.” She answers with a playful smile that he can’t see because of the darkness. 

“Lil’ shit. -He snorts and Beau grabs his cigarette to take a drag. -D’ya want one?” He adds, ready to sit up. 

“Nah, just want yours.” She says before giving it back.

“Brat.” 

The silence falls on them and it was a peaceful silence. 

“It’s the first time I take someone’s virginity.” He says out of the blue. 

“I can’t believe I lost my V-card to a hick.” 

“Watch it, Montgomery. -He threatens without real meaning behind it as he clenches his arm making her head move. -Did it hurt?”

“Yeah, quite a bit.” 

He sighs and offers her the almost finish cigarette. She takes it and takes a drag as he places a gentle hand on her lower belly, the warmth of it appeasing the tightness and the pain. 

“Ya can finish it if ya want.” He offers as he cautiously caresses her lower abdomen, kissing it softly here and there. 

She finishes the cigarette and crushes it on the floor before throwing it against the wall.

“I liked it. Prolly my favorite time.” He admits quietly to her. 

“God, you’re so sentimental. -She laughs quietly as she caresses his back, feeling some sort of blisters on his skin. -You got scars on your back?” 

That question makes him tense and momentarily make him stop what he’s doing before carrying on drawing little arabesque on her lower abdomen. 

“Yeah, my dad was a prick.” He mumbles. 

“Sucks.” She says hesitant, not too sure what’s the right thing to say here.

Daryl hums and comes to kiss her lips. 

“We should go back, Rick gonna loose his shit.” He says and Beau knows he is just trying to change topic. 

She nods, nonetheless and sits up. Daryl grabs his zippo to light their surrounding so they can dress as he leaves the open lighter on the floor. 

“Shit.” Beau says.

“What?” He asks as he puts his jeans back on, coming closer to her. 

“I think I’m bleeding.” And actually, there was a little amount of fresh blood on her t-shirt. She covers her face with the say t-shirt, ashamed. 

“Beau, it’s okay. It’s normal.” He says as he rubs her back. 

“’m sorry.” She mumbles, mortified. 

“Fer what? It’s completely natural. I’m not gonna lie, ‘m pretty proud.” He says, knowing she was going to hit him for that. 

And sure enough, Beau turns around and punches him hard in the stomach, making him huddles slightly. He laughs, nonetheless. 

“Shut up, you perv!” She bites as she pulls her shorts up. Funny enough, they hadn’t removed her trainers. 

“Want my shirt?” 

“Nah, I’m good. I’ll change when we get to the block. It’s too bait if you come back without your shirt.” 

“Yer not comfortable with them knowing?” Daryl asks and Beau can hear the underlying bitterness. 

“I don’t want them to find out I’m a girl.” 

“They won’t hurt ya. I’d never let them or anyone.” He says as they are now both dressed.

“I just struggle being a girl. Them knowing makes it hard for me to forget I am one.” She says awkwardly, scared he won’t understand. 

He nods as he sighs and chew on his thumbs. He finally opens the door, once they both ready to leave and they walk out, making their way to the prison. They both keep quiet and Beau can feel he is disappointed. She sighs as she grabs him by the arm, stopping him in his track and kisses him hard. He is putty in her hands and he grabs her ass firmly, pulling her into him. 

A blinding light dazzle them, and they separate quickly when they see Rick pointing a flashlight at them as he powers walk to them. 

“Where the hell have you been?! - Rick growls at them and he seems to understand the situation as he takes time to look at them properly. -We were worried sick; you’ve been gone for hours!” 

Beau and Daryl stays quiet, completely at lost, feeling like their bubble had been burst violently. Beau can see Daryl looking for an excuse.

“I had the situation in hands, man.” He mumbles, chewing his thumb nervously. 

“Daryl, have you got any idea…” 

Before Rick can say anything more, Beau grabs Daryl’s hand in hers and Beau can tell Rick followed the motion as it gets him quiet for a second. 

“You really want us to fuck on the perch for all of you to watch?” She spits and she can tell both men are shocked. Rick opens his mouth to say something, but nothing comes out.

“Yeah ‘didn’t think so.” She adds, playing it cool but Daryl can feel how wet her hand just got from nervousness. 

Rick looks at Daryl and this one nods to him, like to confirm Beau’s say. 

“Next time, just give me a heads up, okay?” Rick says, the confession hitting him. 

“Ya got it, we didn’t mean to worry ya or anyone else.” Daryl says.

Rick nods and the three of them make their way to the cell block. Before entering the prison, Beau removes her hand from Daryl’s. 

“Rick, can we keep that between us?” He asks quietly.

“Yeah.” Rick nods before entering the compound.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Lori died and Judith was born. 

That came out of a shock for everyone; especially Rick who seemed to have lost his mind over it. He shouted and cried like a wounded animal in the prison court in front of everyone; Carl and Maggie were crying too, covered in blood.  
Everybody seemed emotional about it, except for Beau. This one appeared expressionless, gazing blankly at the scene in front her; the truth is she couldn’t feel anything, she simply did not care. She knew she should have cared a little, she knew those people, there were a tight group after all but no, nothing.  
While Rick was incapable of being in charge, Daryl took over, taking care of Judith like his own and he sent Glenn, Maggie and Beau on a run, in order to get baby food and everything they could grab for the baby. As usual, Beau took her distance with Glenn and Maggie, taking the other direction and checking different shops. 

Beau was checking out some pharmacy, packing up opioid’s pills in her bear backpack when she saw a box of condoms on the upper shelf. She stood there, hesitant and finally sigh as she looked around, checking that she was indeed alone in the pharmacy. Almost against herself, she grabbed the box and studied it quickly before putting it in her backpack. She carried on picking things she deemed necessary when she heard a gunshot and shattered glass. She quickly grabbed her .45 from the nearest shelf she had left it and quietly zipped up her bear backpack and threw it on her back before discretely sneaking out of the shop. 

She heard Glenn begging someone to let Maggie go and she ducked quietly behind some random car when she had a good vision on them; she looked at her gun and she knew she could intervene as it was loaded, and she was a good shot. She could sneak up on them and take a clean shot to the head of the redneck but for some reason, she did not; she stayed hidden, almost mesmerized by what was going on. Nowadays, you could do anything, beat, rape, kill and get away with it. There weren’t laws and rules anymore and that fact hit her hard and somehow amazed her. They were shouting and yet she couldn’t really hear them anymore, it was like her head was under water. The world around her was shifting, yet every time she blinked everything was back to where they were, before shifting again. And before she could wake up from this weird dazing state, Glenn had dropped his gun in the car and climbed into it, followed by the guy and Maggie.  
Beau was plunged in an eerie silence; they were gone, the red basket full of baby items forgotten on the pavement.  
Beau clenched her teeth, mentally insulting herself as she hit the body of the car violently and repeatedly until her hand started bleeding. She carried on hitting the car, even though her knuckles were open and bloody; in her second state, she couldn’t feel the pain. She only stopped when she heard a sinister crack; she observed her purple, open bleeding knuckle, staring blankly at it when she caught a quick movement in the corner of her eyes and without thinking about it, she stood up and took a shot at the person that was standing nearby her. She was going for a kill shot but she had taken the shot from her left hand, the unbroken hand, and her aim wasn’t as good. 

The black woman with a Katana, in her hand, dropped to the floor, grunting in pain as her hands cover her wound on her thigh. Beau walked to her cautiously, kicking away the Katana as she carried on pointing the gun at the woman. Being in front of another human being, who potentially witnessed her insanity, somehow woke her up from her torpor and a strong feeling of shame crept in. The young black woman looked at her crossly, like she was crazy and dangerous at the same time and Beau thought that probably was who she became. 

“Who the fuck is you? You were with that guy?” Beau asked, her voice strained as she had to reaffirm her hold onto the gun as her left arm is weaker and she could feel the weight of the gun. 

The woman did not answer but stared angrily at her. Beau approached her and the world was shifting around her again; she pointed her gun at the woman’s head. She could end her life right now; it would be so easy, so rapid and she could walk away from it like nothing happened. 

Brady would never do that. He would hate you for it. A sly voice rang in her head. 

Beau flinched.

“Shut up!” She shouted, tears in her eyes, making the woman on the floor jump. This one looked scared and Beau sniffled, dabbing the sweat on her forehead with her right arm. She inhaled and exhaled slowly, calming herself down. 

“Whatever. -She claimed, her voice broken. – ‘S not like I give a fuck who you are.” She wiped her nose with the back of her hand, sniffling. 

She took the Katana and walked to the basket, taking it as she started walking to the prison.

She walked for a while before ditching the Katana on the side road of the forest. 

It took a good three hours for her to find the prison back; her legs and arms were burning, and she was happy to see Carl running towards her with Rick to open the gate. 

“What the hell happened?” Rick growls as they walk inside the cell block. 

“Some dude came out of nowhere and took Glenn and Maggie.” She says, sounding jaded, as she drops the basket on the table.

Beth, Carl, Hershel and the two prisoners they had found in the prison who did not try to kill them came to form a group around Beau, distracting her as she nervously looks at them one by one, shuffling on her feet and Rick has to grab her tightly by the arms to try and refocus her. The grip on her arm is painful and somewhat desperate, angering her; she shoves him hard.

“Don’t touch me, asshole!” She shouts, baring her teeth at Rick and as on cue, Daryl walks in, taking long stride towards them, placing himself in front of Rick. 

“Rick.” Daryl implores with both hands up, trying to calm him down.

“Those are our people, Daryl. We need to know what happened.” Rick growls as he tries to take a look at Beau behind Daryl’s shoulders but this one keeps moving to cover Beau from his eyes. 

“I told you what happened! Some asshole showed up and kidnapped them.” She bites at Rick as she too was trying to look at him, moving around behind Daryl.

“What happened to your hand?” Rick asks with a gruff voice.

At that Daryl turns around to have a look at Beau’s hand and sure enough her knuckles were still open and bloody and unnaturally swollen and purple. Daryl takes her hand in his, delicately to observe the damage but she removes her hand from him promptly. She wipes her nose and avert her eyes.

“’S nothing, D.” She mumbles as she looks down. 

Two things disturb Daryl, creating a frown between his eyebrows as he studies her: one was the nickname, Beau did not show any form of affection like this, she never called him sweet name; two was her sudden submissiveness mixed with… shame.  
When she looks up at him, she can see the perplexity on his face before he takes out a bandana from his back pocket to wrap up her hand carefully. 

“Come out fer a smoke with me.” He says lowly as he tilts his head towards the door and Beau accepts, happy to go away from the group.

They come out and the sun blinds them both for a minute, they walk to the side of the prison where some shadow was available and Beau leans against the wall as Daryl stands in front of her. He gets two cigarettes out of his pack and puts them between his lips to light them up both at the same time before giving one to Beau. She did not consider herself a smoker as she only smoked when Daryl offered her a cigarette, but she couldn’t deny she enjoy the calmness it brought her. It was soothing her. She takes a drag on it and she slowly exhale the smoke through her mouth, her wrapped up hand holding the cigarette. 

“Beau, what happened out there?” He asks, his voice low as he drags on his own cigarette, studying her. 

“What? Is that why you got me out here for? So, you can question me?!” She spits angrily, leaning towards him, getting herself off the wall at the same time. 

“Watch your tone, kid! -He growls at her, frowning, taking a step towards her to make her back off and Beau is forced to press herself against the wall again. – Two of our people are missin’! And ya actin’ shady as fuck right now! So yeah, what the fuck happened?” He adds, shouting to her face. 

“What the fuck you’re getting at exactly? You think I had something to do with it or something? “She bites at him, her paranoia and hysteria coming out with each of her words. She looks at him with wide shining eyes and Daryl is slightly thrown; she had been stable for a little while and he doesn’t understand what could have change that. 

He sighs as he pinches the bridge of his nose, calming himself down so he could appease her and refocus her. He throws his half-finished cigarette to the ground, before leaning into her, one hand to the wall and the other one on her cheek. He shushes her as he tilts his head down to rest his forehead on hers. 

“’s okay, Beau. I got ya, ya know that.” He mutters before kissing her slowly and gently. 

Suddenly, he is pushed backward as Beau shoves him away hard. 

“Stop controlling me like that!” She shouts, this time losing it completely and for a second Daryl seems overtaken by the situation.

“Beau. - He says baffled. -Is that what ya think I’m doin’?” And Beau is surprised to see him hurt but she’s too far gone to actually care. 

“Isn’t it? Am I not just a fucking kid to you anyway?” She bites and throws the cigarette butt to the ground angrily before taking a step to leave but Daryl grabs her brutally by the arm and throws her back against the wall.  
He almost jumps on her as he expects her to pull a fight and sure enough, Beau pushes hard against him, punching, kicking and biting at him. She is hysterical and her madness gives her strength as Daryl have to push all his weight onto her to keep her to on the wall and he struggles to grabs her hands and keep them held them firmly on each side of her head. 

She grunts and bare her teeth at him. 

“Calm down! For fuck’s sake Beau! ‘S wrong with ya?!” He shouts, struggling. 

“Get off of me!” She shouts as she bites him hard on his arm. 

He flinches but he doesn’t let go; he pulls her slightly to him before pushing her hard against the wall one more time and she winces under the shock of her head and back hitting the wall. The pain makes her even more angry and it seems to be a motor for her. She redoubles efforts on him, making him struggle.

“Fuck! Beau! Stop this shit! -He growls. -I love you!” He adds, shouting to her face. 

She stops at that and looks at him, out of breath. Their eyes lock and something seem to pass between them. Their chest raising quickly under the efforts. 

“I love you.” He repeats quietly this time as to emphasize every word and to get it across her.

She swallows hard as they stare at each other; her body felt like putty now, all her strength leaving her with her hysteria. She could feel his breath hitting her cheek.

“Well, you’re gonna be disappointed.” She says quietly as she shrugs him off. 

He looks like he just got slap in the face as he slowly back off from her, letting her get off the wall. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He whispers to her, but she ignores him, looking afar as she cannot stand his stare anymore. 

“The guy that took Glenn and Maggie; I think Glenn knew him.” 

Daryl was divided between asking her for an explanation of what she meant or letting her talk to know what really happened. After a second or two, he exhales deeply through the nose as he chooses the second option. 

“What happened to yer hand?” He coughs to clear his throat as he could feel like a metal ball was stuck in his throat, making it difficult for him to swallow his saliva; what she said sounded a lot like rejection and he struggles to keep a straight face. 

“Not sure -She shrugs. -Might’ve hurt it while running errands.” 

Daryl wasn’t convinced but nods at her, nonetheless. She sighs, feeling suddenly tired, and she presses her palms to her eyes. Daryl brushes his hands on her arms, gently but she backs away from him. She looks at him and she can read hurt all over his face. She winces interiorly like hurting him was hurting her. 

“Don’t…Don’t push me away. Please.” He begs quietly, feeling pathetic. 

“I’m not.” 

“Ya seem more…unstable than usual.” 

Before she can answer they can see Rick and Carl shouting and running to the gate. They both walk towards them, observing what was going on and Daryl hears loud and clear when Beau whispers “Shit” to herself as Rick carries a black woman to the prison block.

As they all stand in the prison block, around Rick that interrogate the black woman that turned out to be called Michonne, Daryl keeps his eyes on Beau who seem nervous as she chews on her lower lip, leaning against the wall. 

“Woodbury? How far is it from here?” Rick interrogates but Michonne ignores as she stares angrily at Beau and this one ignores her, looking nonchalantly at her broken hand. 

“Answer the damn question!” Rick spits as he sadistically put pressure on her gun wound. Michonne grunts in pain.

“About a two hours’ drive from here.” 

“What happened to your leg? Who shot you?” Rick asks her and Michonne looks at Beau with a grimace.

“Ask the boy.” She says darkly. 

The silence falls on the prison and Rick stands up, looking at Beau. He walks towards her and stop merely inches away to her face.

“What the hell is she talking about, Beau?” He growls at her and everyone seem to tense. 

Daryl keeps his crossbow on Michonne but flinches slightly at Rick’s tone. He quickly glances at them.

“Rick.” He implores him.

“No Daryl!” 

“I shot that bitch and so what?” Beau says as she opens her arms as to say, ‘what are you gonna do about it’ and Rick pushes her back against the wall.

“Lose the attitude. Something like that happen, I expect you to report it to me.” He says darkly, his jaw clenched as he tilts his head to her. 

“He shot me for no good reason and left me to die without looking back! - Michonne growls, looking at Beau disgusted. She manages to stand herself up against the wall as Rick turns around to listen to her while staying in front of Beau. -Where is my Katana?”

“Forget about it, I’ve ditched it.” Beau shrugs calmly as she inspects her hand and Rick turns back to look at her, severely.

“What’s that all about?” Rick asks. 

“What else was I supposed to do? I didn’t feel like wastin’ her but couldn’t take the risk for her to murder me.” Beau lies easily.

“Bullshit! You’re fucking crazy, that’s why. You were having some kind of breakdown and you couldn’t stand the fact that someone saw you losing your shit!” Michonne spits at Beau and this one lunges forwards to her, but Rick is quicker and catches her, wrapping his arms around Beau firmly to hold her in place. 

“Who you callin’ crazy? Shoulda gun you down, bitch!” Beau shouts, hysterical as she still tries to lunge at Michonne, kicking her feet in the air.

“Daryl!” Rick shouts, struggling to keep Beau contained, and Daryl hurries towards them, grabs her .45 in the front of her shorts.

“You ain’t seen shit!” She spits towards Michonne. 

“Enough.” Rick growls as he throws Beau to the ground, in the other room and locks her in. She stands up quickly and hits the bars angrily. 

“I’ve seen you smashing your hand hysterically until it broke. You hate yourself that much.” Michonne says slyly. 

“That’s enough for you too.” Rick growls at her, making her quiet.

Beau opens her mouth to say something, but her eyes catches Daryl’s and whatever she sees there gets her quiet. She looks down as the shame is overwhelming and she hits the bars with no real strength as she gives in and sighs, walking away and climbing to the perch where her mattress was. 

She sits on her mattress and rest her head on her knees. She misses her bear backpack, but she knew there was no way she could go ask for it now. It was in the other room where they were, near the red basket full of baby food. A disproportionate worrying feeling run through her as she doesn’t like the idea of her bear being alone, unprotected surrounded by all those people. All she wanted was to go get her bear backpack and go far away from them all; they probably hated her now. She lets herself drop to her side, onto the mattress, in a fetal position, her knees to her chest. She doesn’t know how long pass as she concentrates on her heartbeat, trying to fall asleep but she hears the cell door being open and lock back up after they come into the cell block. She could hear them whisper on the first ground and suddenly she can see her bear backpack looking back at her; Daryl was carrying it by the straps as he stood there, looking at her. 

She extends her arms towards it, like a child but she doesn’t care right now. She refuses to look at Daryl, her embarrassment not allowing her. This one approaches her and gives her the bear; Beau hugs it close to her, squeezing it and she hides her face in it. She doesn’t say anything, nor move as she stays in her fetal position, her face hidden in her bear. She knows that Daryl is still standing in front of her mattress, not knowing what to do next. She can hear shuffle and then she feels her mattress sag behind her, under his weight as he sat his back to hers. 

“No one’s mad. -He says, his voice strained. -Ya freaked out, happens to the best of us.” 

Beau doesn’t move but she listens carefully, almost holding her breath. She could tell he was choosing his words wisely. 

“I meant it, Beau.” 

“I love you.” He adds.

He finally turns around to discover that Beau hasn’t moved and for a moment, he thinks she might have fallen asleep. He puts a gentle hand on her shoulder to get her to lay down on her back, which she does and their eyes lock as she is now laid down on her back, Daryl holding himself on top on her side. They face each other, their eyes not leaving each other. 

“Ya say I see ya as a kid, and maybe I do…yer a kid to me, I’m seventeen years older than ya, Beau. But I won’t let go, doesn’t matter how much ya fucked up, I got ya. ‘S first time I feel like that ‘bout anyone. “

He shakes her slightly by the shoulders as she keeps quiet. 

“Hey, d’ya hear me? I’m on yer side.” He says, a little bit louder. 

“Yeah.” She finally nods.

“Stop testin’ me, Beau.” He says firmly this time. 

She nods again.

“And when something like that happens, ya talk to me. Me.” He endorses. 

“Yeah.” She whispers back, her voice breaking slightly. 

She is about to cry, and she averts her eyes to the left as silent tears rolls down to her mattress.

“I coulda help them. – She admits quietly. - but I didn’t…I had a clear shot.” 

Daryl does not say anything as he just listens to her, his gaze on her. 

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” 

“Hershel thinks yer mind’s broken or some shit. Makes ya unpredictable.” 

“Will Rick send me away?” And at that moment, she sounded so young and broken; it hit Daryl how Beau was indeed still a lost and damaged child. 

“’Course not. He gets it more than anyone else. Hell, the guy’s takin’ stroll in the looney tunes town every now and then.” 

He says, trying to get her to smile but it does not work. The silence falls on them and he plays gently with her hair, making her sleepy and calm.

“’m sorry for lyin’ ‘bout my hand.” She mumbles.

“Careful there, ya start gettin’ that southern twang.” He jokes as he lays beside her and they face each other, laying down on their sides. 

Daryl grabs her injured hand cautiously and pulls it to his mouth; he nuzzles her wrapped and bloodied hand, in a very animalistic manner, before resting it next to his chest. 

“I don’t want ya hurtin’ yerself no more.” Daryl says, suddenly serious and Beau could see fear in his eyes. 

“It’s not like that.” She mumbles, embarrassed as she lays back on her back, studying the ceiling. 

Daryl sighs, knowingly. It wasn’t the first time she had a breakdown, far from it, but usually Daryl was there to keep it from going too far. 

“’m sorry for not bein’ there when it happened.” He says as he draws little circle on her stomach. 

“I can handle myself.” 

They knew this wasn’t entirely true. 

“Rick wants me and Oscar to go to Woodbury with that Michonne girl. We’re getting our people back.” Daryl says after some time. 

“I guess I’m not allowed near my gun for a day or two.” She snorts mockingly. 

This was often her ‘punishment’ for losing her mind; she wasn’t allowed any weapon and was almost kept apart from the rest of the group for a day or two. Rick called it “precaution quarantine”. 

Daryl nods.

“Ya seemed pretty ready to waste the bitch. Rick wants ya to lay low fer a bit.” 

“I was gonna.” She confesses, her eyes to the ceiling. 

“What stopped ya?” 

She stays quiet for a second or two and grabs her bear backpack and sit it on her belly to look at it closely, playing with one ear. 

“Brady wouldn’t have done that.” She says quietly. 

“Yer guys real close, uh?” He asks, curious; she rarely mentioned him. 

Beau tics a little but glance up at him quickly before looking back at the bear. 

“Um, I’ve been following him around my whole life, trying to be just like him. I grew up in his back pocket; he was real popular at school, y’know. We had each other’s back. He got me Roosevelt before dropping me off to college in Lawrenceville. And my automatic knife.” She adds, laughing as she remembers when he gave her the two gifts that night in the motel room as they took a break from driving. 

She has a flashback of them sitting on their respective queen beds, facing each other as he gave her ‘back to school’ gifts. 

‘That’s for shanking enemies, lil’ Beau.’ Brady said with a laugh as he extended the automatic knife to her. 

‘And that’s Roosevelt. -She remembers putting the knife carefully on the nightstand as she observes the bear backpack before taking it in her hands. -So, you’ll have me with you at all time, even when I’m away. So, nothing’ll change, it’s gonna be like it always has been.’ He said fist bumping her shoulder and Beau had nodded. 

She can feel tears coming to her eyes, but she chases them away and she coughs to clear a throat. 

“Sounds like a good brother.” Daryl says, studying her.

“Um. Even though we’re twins, he was always like a big brother, looking after me, y’know.” 

The silence falls on them and they stay quiet, lost in their own thoughts. 

“Oh, by the way, look what I found.” She says proudly as she opens her bear backpack to get the box of condoms out and present it to Daryl. 

This one laugh quietly as he let his head fall on Beau’s shoulder, slightly hiding it and Beau knows he’s embarrassed. He grabs the box and looks at it.

“Means ya up for more?” He asks, looking at her.

Beau shrugs, playing it cool.

“You’re not?”

“’course, ya know I do. I just thought ya might not want to anymore.” 

Beau frowns confused for a moment. 

‘Well, you’re gonna be disappointed.’ She had said to him earlier, after he told her he loved her. 

Anger and frustration made her say it out loud, but she knew it was the truth; She was losing ground and she felt shattered. She knew if she finds Brady dead, she would end her life. Nothing and no one could stop that. 

He is going to be disappointed. 

She did care about him, more than she would like. 

“’m sorry for the shit I said earlier.” She mumbles. 

He swallows hard and nods at her. Beau can tell he’s hurt.

“You’re my best friend.” She adds.

“Ya often have sex with yer friends?” He whispers darkly, and Beau cannot find the bitterness behind it. 

“Daryl.” She sighs, slightly shaking her head negatively.

“What? I know it’s more than that. Yer lyin’ to yerself.” He says louder, getting more agitated. 

She sits up and Daryl follow suit, sliding his arm around her waist to keep her there and prevent her from standing up and running away.

“Stop runnin’ from me everytime ya get too close.” He blames her as he sits behind her on the mattress, his legs on each side of hers, her ass against his crotch. He holds her close to him with his strong left arm and his other hand caresses her thigh. 

“Ya can’t play it like that with me.” He adds.

“Let go.” She says and it sounded very much like a warning.

“’m more than just yer fuck buddy. It’s more than that.” He repeats.

“How would I know? You’re the only person I ever had.” 

This seem to hurt him because he sighs and rest his head on the back of hers for a second or two.

“Yer always lookin’ fer me. Every time I touch ya, ya flinch -He says, his voice getting hoarse as he slides his hand closer to her pussy, making her tense. He cups it on top of her oversized shorts, squeezing it before sliding inside her short and caressing her naked lips. -I get ya wet so easily.” And to prove his saying, he parts her pussy lips with his fingers, before pushing one inside of her and sure enough she is wet.

Their breathing is ragged, and Beau can feel him getting hard in her lower back. 

“Doesn’t mean anything. This could work with anybody else.” She says lowly. 

Daryl wants to scream and he feels like breaking things. He has to take a deep breath to calm down.

“Have ya felt like that with anybody before?” He whispers as he carries on touching her pussy, sliding his fingers in and out.

“No. – She whimpers. -But I’ve never let anyone get that close to me before.” 

“Then why did ya let me?”

“I don’t know. -She cries as she knows she was losing. - Don’t make me say it.” She whines.

He shushes her and pushes her legs apart as she was closing them slightly. 

“Open yer legs, baby. -He whispers to her ear, his voice hoarse and low. They were facing the wall and his back was to the mezzanine; he was covering her completely. -Gonna have to be quiet, sweetheart. Can ya do that fer me?” 

Beau nods as she bites her lips and rest her back onto his chest. 

He fucks her pussy with one finger and rubs her clit with his thumb; Beau was holding onto his ankles tightly as she tried her best to keep quiet, her breathing was a mess. 

“I want ya to admit it, baby.” He whispers to her hear.

“Fuck you.” She hisses, making Daryl laugh. 

He stops fingering her and she whines, feeling her neglecting pussy throb. She sighs as she hides her face in her hands, her arms resting on top of her knees. Daryl strokes her hair gently and kisses her neck here and there. He leans back down slightly, keeping his clothed hard cock to her clothed ass and caresses her side to remind him to her.

“At least admit that there is more than that.” He says, his voice low. 

She sighs.

“Yeah, there is. Happy?” 

“Not entirely, but I’ll wait.” He says, coming back to hold her tight as his hand slides back down into her shorts to finish what he started.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The silence in the SUV was overwhelming; Rick had packed a sniper and two machine guns with ammos in the trunk before leaving for Woodbury. Michonne had insisted for Beau to join up as she wanted her to try remembering where about she had dropped her Katana and she hoped that one was going to be able to spot it. Against Rick and Daryl’s real desire to leave Beau rest at the prison, Rick accepted unwillingly, thinking this was a fair enough request.  
They have been driving for an hour and there was another one to go before getting there. Rick was driving, his hands gripping the wheel tensely, and Beau was sitting next to him in the passenger’s seat, silent as she observed the passing landscape, feigning to look for the Katana; not believing she’ll be able to spot it. She had been in some weird torpor and there was no way in hell, she could remember where she ditched the weapon.  
Michonne was sat quietly at the back, in the middle as Oscar was squeezed against the car door behind Beau and Daryl was sat on the other side, behind Rick. Daryl was keeping a close eye on Michonne; ready to intervene if she tried anything. 

Beau sighs noisily, like a petulant child. 

“It’s long, yo.” She complained as she wiggled on her seat. 

“You wouldn’t have to be here, if you wouldn’t have mess up in the first place.” Rick said severely. 

Beau exhales deeply through her nose as she locks her jaw angrily, but she doesn’t add anything, and the car is once again plunged into a deep uncomfortable silence. 

“Well, I’ll be damned.” Beau whispers before she hit the window of the car on her side, rather brutally, making everyone in the car jump with a start. 

“Rick! Stop the car!” She half shouted.

“Why?” He growls.

“Just stop the fucking car, man!” She spits at him and this one slams on the brake violently, making the car stop abruptly and throwing everyone forward. 

As Beau goes for the door handle, Rick stops her in her track, holding her back in the car. Beau looks back at him with a frown, confused.

“First you’re going to tell me why we stopped the car?” Rick asks darkly, intensifying the atmosphere in the car. He was still holding her tightly by the arm and Beau frowns as she tries to pull away, ignoring him. 

“Hey. -He calls her out as he grabs her chin firmly with one hand so their eyes can meet. Daryl moves imperceptivity towards them, as to stop Rick from touching her but stays in place as Rick gives him a warning look. Once he manages to get the rash teenager to look at him, he carries on severely. -When I ask you a question, I expect you to answer it.” He claims between his teeth, his eyes not leaving Beau’s. 

Daryl wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but a strong mixture of jealousy and anger runs through him as he looks at Rick’s hand on Beau’s face, their faces close to each other’s, their eyes not leaving each other’s. Daring each other’s. 

“Get off me, bitch!” Beau spits as she tries to snap her face away from his hold. As she starts to ruffle against his hold, Rick pounces on her to hold her prisoner against the car door. Beau winces as her broken hand comes to grip Rick’s shirt.

“Rick! Stop it!” Daryl shouts as he grips Rick’s arm. 

Rick throws him off, without removing his hold on Beau.

“No, Daryl! I had enough with you protecting her; she needs to be held responsible for her actions. She needs to learn who she is talking to.” He growls darkly and Beau can feel her pulse quicken and a shiver run across her, before the authority and strength that was coming from their leader. 

In their heated argument, they didn’t even notice Rick had used ‘her’ and ‘she’, momentarily confusing Michonne and Oscar. 

“I’m gonna repeat the question once, Beau. -He warns carefully and slowly, and Beau nods her understanding. -Why did we stop here?” 

“I’ve ditched her Katana around here.” She says, not without showing her teeth to him. 

This one exhales sharply through the nose.

“Where the hell did you think you were going, jumping out of the car like you did?” 

This time Beau doesn’t answer him, and Rick can see the affront in her silence. He pushes her back against the door harshly to get her to answer but Beau smirks back at him, defiant.  
Rick grabs her broken hand with one of his hand before squeezing it painfully. This time, Beau loses her smile and she grunt painfully as she hunches over to try and bring her throbbing hand back to her chest, but Rick doesn’t let her. 

“Rick.” She begs between her teeth; her face scrunched in pain.

“You’re too big for your boots, kid.” He whispers to her darkly before pushing her hand back to her brutally. 

When Beau sits up, she has tears in her eyes, and she sniffles as she wipes her nose. They both sit back against their seats, the silence falling back into the habitat of the car, only cut by Beau’s quiet sniffles. Beau hides her face in her right arm, her eyes in the crevice of the inside of her elbow; her arm resting on the edge of her window. She cries silently and as discretely as she can, feeling embarrassed and hurt. The silence is heavy and awkward as they all listen to Beau cry quietly; her subtle little sniffles and hiccups echoing in the car habitat. Daryl awkwardly looks at his joined hands before placing a comforting hand on Beau’s thigh and this one flinches her leg slightly as to make him remove his hand. Daryl takes the hint and removes his hand promptly. 

Rick can tell she is low key waiting for his permission to leave the car and he waits for a little while, making sure Beau is getting some discipline and relishing in his success to have managed caving the rash teenager. 

“Go.” Rick orders, his tone firm but calmer. 

Beau nods quietly and she sniffles and wipes her eyes on her arm; the motion is very boyish and childish at the same time. She avoids everyone’s eyes as she feels humiliated. She opens the door and leave the habitat of the car promptly, happy to walk away from this situation. 

The silence falls on the four survivors in the car, shocked by what had just happened. 

“The fuck was that about, man?” Daryl growls as he punches angrily the front sit where Rick was sat. 

This one sighs as he rests his head on the head rest, looking afar. 

“She needs to learn, Daryl. -He says, sounding tired, jaded almost. -During my time as an officer, I’ve known some kids like her; angry, hurt and rash. They all end up bad, Daryl. Her attitude will get her killed or someone else. Deep down, she is still a child and she need some sorts of parental figure.” 

“Yer talkin’ ‘bout her like she some kind of thug. She ain’t one, Rick.” 

“I’ve seen kids like her getting locked up in state prison, Daryl. The exact same attitude.” 

Daryl sighs as he runs a hand on his face. 

“I thought we figured I was gonna be that parental figure.” Daryl adds.

“You’re too soft on her; you’re over protecting her and she can get away with pretty much anything, and she knows it. Also, your relationship is different now. She got you whipped, brother. “Rick says with a smile, hoping to downplay the situation.

Daryl huffs as to say Rick was talking nonsense. But deep down, he knew that was true; he was wrapped around her little finger. She just had to snap her fingers at him for him to drop anything he was doing and run to her. 

“So, that’s a girl?” Michonne asks quietly, cutting off the silence after some time. 

Both men hum their answers and it sounded as they would say ‘Yeah, we know, hard to believe.’

Beau took her sweet time, not looking forward to being sat next to Rick. Once she found the Katana, she walks back to the car to open Oscar’s door and she pretty much throw the Katana onto Michonne’s laps.

She climbs next to Rick again; a smirk painted on her lips. 

“Satisfied, dad?” She says sarcastically. 

Rick could see the playfulness on Beau’s face, and he snorts before starting the car. 

The plan was simple but risky; they would wait for the night to fall to sneak in and get Glenn and Maggie out. They parked the car outside the woods and decided to go there walking. Rick repeated the plan to make sure everyone knew what to do. 

“You took my gun away. What the hell am I supposed to do without it?” Beau asks Rick with a certain attitude. As soon as Rick caught her tone, he stared her down and Beau sighs, looking down in some sort of submission. 

“I got better for you.” He says as he walks around the car to get the sniper outside of the trunk. 

“Sweet.” Beau smiles as she grabs it. 

“I want you to cover us. You’re not getting inside. I trust you, Beau.” Rick says emphasizing his words by placing his hand on the side of her neck to keep her focus. An intimate motion he stole from Daryl. This one observes them as he stands by the bonnet of the car; his fists clenched tightly as jealousy makes him feel sick to his stomach. 

Beau looks at Rick with something close to wonder as she nods firmly. It was obvious to Daryl now that Rick was right, the kid was starving for parental validation. A point of sadness hits him as once again he could see himself so clearly in her. He closes his eyes for a second and turns his gaze towards the woods, trying his best to keep his possessive behavior in check. 

The raid did not exactly go as they wanted; they brought Maggie and Glenn back safely to the car, but Daryl got caught. Turned out the redneck that kidnapped Maggie and Glenn was Merle, Daryl’s brother. On the way back to the car, Beau was tense as she kept chewing on her lips and she was impatiently walking circle around Rick.  
‘We gotta go back, asap, man.’ She was keep repeating to Rick and she could tell this one was as nervous as her and wanted Daryl back as much as her.

Rick, Maggie, Oscar and Beau went back to Woodbury and as instructed by Rick, Beau had her sniper on the walkers that got thrown into the ‘arena’ where Daryl and his brother were fighting in some sort of sick game. 

The plan was simple: make a big distraction so Daryl could escape back with them. 

Oscar got shot but the rest of them managed to get back to the car. The tension was thick as Glenn, Maggie and Michonne pointed their weapons at Merle. Beau was not listening to the heated argument that had exploded within their little group, as she was staring down at Daryl, almost like she was seeing him for the first time.

So, the hick was not untouchable. 

She had seen Daryl as indestructible, the unstoppable redneck, the survivor that had beaten the shit out of her the first time they met. When she had seen him getting beaten up by his brother, it’s almost like she couldn’t fathom what was happening. She had frowned, looking perplexedly at the scene and only Rick shouting his order for her to take the shot had woken her up.

Seeing him on the floor, hunched over himself, submissively, under the brutal hit of his older brother, trying to punch his brother back, hesitant, had made her mad. She hadn’t been scared; she had been furious. It’s the first time in a long time, she had felt something for someone else and she was amazed at how ready she had been to destroy everyone and burn down Woodbury, if anything had happened to him. 

Despite everyone arguing with each other, Daryl felt Beau’s gaze on him, and he was confused as he couldn’t quite read her expression. It felt like time had stopped between them as they observe each other; the shouting of the others becoming background noises. He saw her eyes moving to the black eye he could feel was appearing on his face and then his split lips. She was frowning as she kept scanning his face.

“Beau. -He calls out and somehow the sound of his voice stops everyone from arguing as they all look back at the hot-headed teenager. They seemed perplex by the silent exchange between them. – ‘m okay.” Daryl adds in a quiet mumble as he takes a careful step towards her. 

“’m okay.” He repeats, softly as he slowly and cautiously makes his way towards her. Beau does not move as she carries on observing him quietly and curiously. He finally wraps his arms around her, gently and he plunges his nose in her hair, inhaling deeply.  
Beau does not hug him back as she seems frozen, her arms to her sides, dangling. 

The others observe the curious scene in front of them and Maggie and Glenn seem puzzled. 

“Holy shit, Darylena! Ya found yerself a lil’ boyfriend.” Merle snorts mockingly behind Daryl.

Beau can feel Daryl tense in his embrace, under the insinuation that he was gay. He pulls away and turns around towards his brother as he pushes him harshly.

“Shut up, Merle.” He bites.

Merle laughs out loud at his face. 

“I can see ya choose smaller than ya, ‘can finally feel like a real man, railin’ his lil’ ass, uh brotha!” Merle barks, half chuckling as he grabs his crotch vulgarly, looking straight at Beau. 

They hear the sinister noise of Merle’s nose cracking under Daryl’s fist more than they saw him pouncing on his older brother. The motion had been so rapid, like Daryl hadn’t think about it but had acted purely instinctively. Merle’s head had been thrown backwards and blood was spurting from his nose, but he was still standing. Before Merle could throw himself on Daryl to beat him up, Rick jumped forward to catch him and hold him back as Michonne pointed her Katana to his chest. Merle spat a mix of saliva and blood to the floor, angrily. 

“Ya fuckin’ faggot! Hittin’ yer own brotha fer a lil’ twink!”

Beau saw Daryl’s jaw lock under his anger, and she could tell he was dying to say she was a girl and that he wasn’t gay. However, he was keeping quiet because that’s what she had wanted, and a wave of guilt ran through her. 

“’m not a boy.” Beau mumbles in a whisper but everyone seemed to have heard it.

She could read shock on Merle’s face before a barking laugh escaped him. Glenn and Maggie had seemed equally shocked and confused but then realization was painted all over their faces. Like lots of things were now making sense. 

“Well, shit! Coulda fool me!” Merle barks, laughing.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Glenn asks, ignoring Merle. 

Beau can hear the slight indignation in Glenn’s voice, something close to betrayal. She opens her mouth to say something, but nothing comes out.

“She feels more comfortable like that.” Rick answers, his tone implacable; and Beau is grateful for his intervention. 

“So, what’s yer name, sweetheart? ‘S not every day my brotha take a likin’ in some girlies.” Merle asks, his eyes on Beau, ignoring the weapons drawn on him.

“Beau.” 

“Hm. Like Beau Taylor, the baseball catcher?”

“Yeah that’s right.”

“Not much of a talker, uh. Prolly why ya get along with ma brotha. Always been the quiet one ma baby brotha.” He says, almost proudly. 

“Daryl, we gotta talk. -Rick says, his voice low and gruff making Daryl flinches. He lets go of Merle and point a blaming finger at Michonne -You, to the car.” He adds looking at her severely. This one obeys unwillingly, putting her Katana down as she walks to the SUV. 

Rick, Daryl, Maggie and Glenn walk away to talk in private, leaving Beau and Merle to observe each other. 

Beau gets a good idea of the dynamic between Merle and Daryl and she can’t stop from noticing that her and Daryl are indeed very similar. Now, Brady was nothing like Merle, but Merle was the dominant one, the one in charge. And Daryl was the one following his brother around, trying desperately to reach some of his brother’s expectations. 

Behind her, she could hear them argue and dread fills her as their conversation becomes clearer.

‘My blood, my family is standing right here. Do you really want him to sleep near Carol and Beau?’ 

‘He ain’t’ no rapist.’ 

‘His buddies are.’ 

‘Fine, we’ll fend for ourselves.’ Daryl says after sometime. 

‘What? That’s not…Daryl you can’t leave us.’

‘No Merle, no me.’’

And after sometimes.

‘You can’t leave us, we need you’ she hears Rick says desperately to Daryl and it sounded very much like he was begging him to stay. At that, Beau turns around and walks to them, panicked. Daryl ignores her completely, not even looking at her as he picks up his backpack from the trunk of the SUV. 

“No him, no me. Merle’s my blood. Ya’ll do the same. -He says to Rick in a sigh. -Take care of lil’ ass kicker. Carl is a tough kid.” Daryl adds as he nods to him in some sort of farewell. 

Beau is frozen in place; he was not even looking at her as he makes his way into the woods towards his brother. She could feel her heartbeat quicken and her mouth get dry as pure anxiety fills her up, making her feel sick. She looks at his back, lost for word as she couldn’t comprehend what was happening. Suddenly he stops dead in his track and turns around slowly to face her. Beau can tell he is hesitant; he doesn’t know what to do with her, she realized. After what felt like an eternity, he finally speaks up.

“Yer comin’?” He asks her like he was expecting her to follow him and didn’t understand why she was taking her sweet time.

But they both know that he’s bluffing. He’s not confident she was going to follow him blindly and away from the safety of the prison. His eyes not leaving hers, almost imploring. She swallows hard as she takes a look towards Rick, that stands merely inches away from her. 

“You’re not taking her too.” Rick growls and Beau is surprised to see Rick so defensive of her; but again, it might have been a strategy to keep Daryl from walking out on them. After all, Daryl was in love with her, he might stay if she did.

He steps towards Rick, angrily. 

“It’s not yer call.” He spits at Rick.

“You’re seriously gonna take her away from her people? From the safety of the prison? Are you seriously gonna throw her on the streets again?” Rick says between his teeth and Beau dreads the idea of being back on the streets. 

Daryl seemed to be hit by Rick’s words like a slap in the face as he steps back slightly; his face showing hesitation and sadness. Beau could tell he was divided and upset with himself for being selfish, he did want her to stay safe and sound at the prison with their group, but he also wanted her with him. 

He couldn’t leave her behind.

He could walk out on them.

But not on her.

“I vouched fer her, remember? I’ll protect her.” He offers, trying to reassure Rick but himself too. 

Beau turns towards Rick, her eyes down. She felt lost, she didn’t know what to do; parts of her wanted to stay with their group, leaving them felt like betrayal. She got used to them and she enjoyed her role within their group, she was able to look for Brady while running errands and she was grateful for the safety of the prison and their people but realistically she couldn’t see herself going back to the prison without Daryl. 

Brady was her solid ground; always has been and always will. But he wasn’t around, and she noticed that Daryl was filling up for him. He became her solid ground, filling up the vacant position little by little, step by step. 

A substitution. 

Admittedly, but necessary to her. Vital almost. 

“’m sorry.” She mumbles and she takes her bear backpack out of the trunk of the car. She couldn’t’ look at Rick, she didn’t want to see the distress in his eyes. Her bear backpack contained all her belongings except for her gun. Rick had made her left it on her mattress at the prison so she knew she’ll have to score a new one. 

Before she could step towards the woods, she felt Rick grabbing her arm firmly and she sighs as she turns around towards him. She could hear Maggie and Glenn calling her name to stop her from leaving. They looked dejected. 

“I’ll bring him back.” She says quietly but firmly to Rick. She tries to convince him as their eyes lock and something seems to pass between them, understanding and some sort of promises. Rick nods and unwillingly lets her go. 

Beau walks to Daryl and this one drapes an arm around her shoulders before joining Merle. This one hugs his brother and taps Beau’s shoulder before they walk away.


	9. Chapter 9

‘I’ll bring him back.’ She had fervently promised to Rick.

She sighs, shaking her head no to herself, desperate. 

How? How could she convince Daryl to abandon his brother? She sure as hell would never walk out on her brother. Now that the three of them were walking through the woods; Beau following them blindly as both brother were walking in front of her as they were agile through the trees; it seemed extremely hard for her to find a way to separate them or convince Daryl to just walk back to the prison with her alone. 

She was thinking about every option possible; every scenario playing in her head, but none of them seemed to work out. Each time, she would cross out her new idea on her imaginative list; she could almost hear the scribbling sound. 

1.Convince him

Tell him, walking out on their group was a dick move…worst, betrayal. That they had declare war to the governor and Rick will need all the people he can on his side, he will need muscle, soldiers and god knows Daryl was his fiercer soldier. Tell him what they had told her at the beginning, you can’t do it without people anymore; they need us as much as we need them. Tell him Merle will have to walk until he finds a new group that would accept him. 

Realistically, Beau knew this would be difficult; Merle was considered an enemy and a traitor to the Governor while he was considered a pest to their group. His only chance would be to walk and beg to be accepted into a group he encountered. But it had been over a year since the world had started dying and there was less and less people alive and more and more walkers roaming the earth. People had become more vicious and wicked, more paranoid, more violent, more ruthless and people had regrouped already; she knew how hard it would be to join a new group. 

2\. Throw an ultimatum

Be that bitch, Beau. Tell him it’s him or me; threaten him to walk out on him. Tell him that if she dies on the way, it’d be on his conscience. That he would never get to fuck that pussy again. She sighs as she slaps herself mentally to even think like that. 

3\. Lose Merle

Okay, that one was tempting. Losing Merle while running errands and maybe, discretely pushing him towards a walker. Convince him that it’s too late for him now.

“So, what’s the deal, here? Ya got some daddy issues, hybrid? ‘s why ya get it goin’ with ma brotha.” Merle snorts, cutting Beau’s threads of thoughts. 

Hybrid.

4\. Kill him  
She thinks grinding her teeth angrily. 

She didn’t have her gun, but she definitely felt like shanking him, prison style right now. Daryl might be upset but fuck it, the hillbilly had it coming.

“Don’t call’er that.” Daryl growls at his brother, shoving him harshly. 

“God, ya got it so sweet fer the lil’ girl, uh. -Merle answers, licking his lips, as he observes his brother, somewhat thoughtfully. -So, Beau.” He calls out to her, turning himself around towards her. 

Beau was much slower than them, she didn’t have their skills or agility on the field, and she struggled to walk through the trees and tall grasses; her legs getting irritated from the grass. She was covered in a thin layer of sweat, like them and she and Daryl had their short hair sticking to their faces. 

Daryl frowns to his brother, scared of what was going to come out of his brother’s mouth. Beau managed to catch up to them.

“What?” She asks abruptly, without looking at Merle as she overtakes him and carries on walking past the brothers. 

“Wanna know some stuffs ‘bout ma baby brotha?” He asks and Beau doesn’t need to look at him to know he must be sporting a vicious and mocking smirk. She can almost feel Daryl tense up by her side as he walks slightly behind her, by arm reach distance. 

“No, she don’t.” Daryl growls.

Merle has a quiet laugh. 

“’m sure she’s interested. I mean it’s not like ya talk much, prolly didn’t tell her how ya lost yer V-card with a hooker.” He barks, laughing as Daryl punches him hard in the arm.

“Shut up, Merle! God damnit, why can’t ya keep yer trap shut!” Daryl shouts angrily as he grabs his brother by his dirty wife beater top menacingly.

Beau stops dead in her tracks and turns slowly towards the brothers. 

“Actually, I’m interested.” She announces and both brothers turn their head towards her as Merle burst out laughing and Daryl frowns as Beau smirks to him.

“Told ya she’d wanna know. -Merle barks as he pushes away Daryl and steps towards her and they start walking as Daryl looks at them, deflated -Let me tell ya somethin’ ‘bout ma baby brotha here; He wasn’t really good with woman. Hell, if I hadn’t pay for that hooker, he prolly still be a lil’ virgin. See, the boy was shy, and he got no game, so he scared the ladies away.” He laughs out loud like he was almost reliving some scene in his head. 

“Hey Daryl! -He calls out. -Remember lil’ Glenda. Let me tell ya that little bitch was gagin’ fer ya and yet she ran away screamin’ when ya barfed all over her heels.” 

Merle couldn’t stop laughing and Beau could tell Daryl was mortified; his face and ears were red, and he kept his face downwards avoiding her stare. 

“Shit who would’ve guess, uh.” Beau says as she keeps her eyes on Daryl and she knows her intervention got both brothers curious; Daryl’s head snaps upwards, as he frowns at her, wandering what she meant, while Merle stops laughing and looks at her curiously. 

“Whatcha mean, hybrid?” Merle says. 

“Shit, I mean the girls, back at the prison, really got the hots for lil’ Dixon here. He got some mad swag going on with the ladies.” 

“Is that right?” 

“Church.” Beau adds as she carries on walking ahead, a smile painting her lips as she knows she managed to shut Merle up. 

“Well, damn, brotha! Didn’t know ya had it in ya, uh. Still remember Gracie complaining of yer three minutes fucks.” He barks laughing once more as wraps an arm around Daryl’s back. 

“Who’s Gracie?” Beau asks on the spot and she meets up with Daryl’s eyes. His stare is piercing her, making her breathless for a second. She can’t quite read his expression, but he ends up shaking his head “no” disapprovingly.  
He pushes Merle off of him roughly as he takes the lead, ignoring them both. 

“Why, Gracie was Daryl’s favorite bitch, of course. -Merle’s smile was crooked and Beau knew she wasn’t going to like what was coming next. -She was a real fox with a big pair of tits, uh Daryl? You used to like’em real slutty.” Merle barks laughing and Beau swallows hard as she carries on walking, keeping her head down. 

She knew what Merle had tried to imply here; she wasn’t girly, nor sexy, she didn’t have big boobs and definitely wasn’t slutty. She brushed off the unreasonable jealousy and anger she felt as they carry on walking aimlessly.  
Merle tried to humiliate Daryl a few more times but it eventually got old as Daryl and Beau kept quiet. Beau could feel Daryl’s eyes on her, here and there; but every time she looked towards him, he seemed to feel it and turns his gaze elsewhere. She knew he was upset with her for earlier but now he seemed anxious of her quietness. 

Daryl couldn’t seem to catch anything to eat and he tried to get them out of the woods, so they could search for food and shelter in houses but Merle refused, accusing Daryl to try to get them back to the prison and Beau was surprised to hear Daryl confirm that idea.  
Merle seemed jealous of Daryl’s relationship with Rick, accusing him of being close to the sheriff and agreeing to his ideology. Almost like he was scared of losing some sort of hold on Daryl, or maybe simply losing him at all. Beau could almost see the distress in Merle’s face when he understood that Daryl had survived and grow without him. Daryl was his own person now and Beau could tell Merle didn’t like not having the upper hand on his baby brother anymore.  
Merle added that the governor was probably at the prison at that time, killing every last one of them and Beau could tell that affected Daryl, like he was aching to run back to the prison to help them. He looked thoughtful as he kept looking through the lenses of his crossbow.

“I only caught a damn squirrel; it won’t be enough.” Daryl mumbles as Merle took a piss on a tree, further away from them, and Beau played with her automatic knife sat down against a trunk of tree. 

“It’ll have to be.” Merle says as he walks back to them. 

Daryl spits on the floor, cowboy style as he starts to follow his brother; they both turn around to look at Beau when they notice that she wasn’t following them. She sighs as she brushes her short hair backwards with her hand in a nervous fashion.

“I don’t know, man. -She says quietly, and Daryl knows she is talking to him only. She shakes her head slightly and licks her lips before looking back at him. -It don’t feel right being here when that bozo could be killing our people.” 

The silence answers her. She could see in Daryl’s eyes that he agreed with her, it was itching him to run back. He steps towards her, but Merle holds him back.

“Ya can go back, hybrid. Me and Darylena will be jus’ fine.” 

“Let go of me and stop callin’ her dat! -Daryl growls, pushing his brother. -She right, we gotta go back.”

“Ya and the sheriff are tight now, uh. I wander if it’ll still be the case if he’d knew we were gonna rob their camp dry.”

“It didn’t happen.”

“Yeah, ‘cause I wasn’t there to help ya. ‘Cause yer precious people let me to die on that damn roof!” 

“Ya did that to yerself! I went back fer ya. Ya had to cut yer own damn hand ‘cause ya a simple-minded piece of shit!” 

Daryl shouts as he turns his back to his brother. Merle grabs him by the shirt which torn it apart, revealing the numerous and angry scars on Daryl’s back. Merle looks stunned at his back and the silence comes back on them. Daryl was desperately trying to cover his back, ignoring both his brother’s and Beau’s stares. 

“I didn’t know he…” Started Merle. 

“Yeah, he did. He did the same to you. S ‘why you left first.” Daryl’s voice was thick with emotion as he grabs his backpack and arrows back from the floor. 

“I had to, man. I would’ve kill’im otherwise.” 

Daryl throws his backpack on, covering some of his scars as he walks towards Beau, his arrows in his hand. 

“Where ya going?” 

“Back where I belong.”

“I can’t come with you. I tried to kill that black bitch and I damn near killed that Chinese kid.” 

“He’s Korean.” Daryl says.

“Whatever. They will never accept me.” 

“To be fair, I shot Michonne and they seem to be fine with it.” Beau says, shrugging. 

It took them a few hours to go back to the prison and sure enough before they even make it, they could hear walkers and gun shots. Rick was struggling against a walker before Daryl shot an arrow in its head. The two men nod at each other in recognition.

“Told you I’d bring him back.” Beau says playfully towards Rick with a smile and this one snort amused and relieved to see them back. 

They manage to get rid of all the walkers that the governor had left run free inside the prison, but the gun shots had attracted a lot more of them and the prison was now surrounded.  
They all gather around in the cell block, arguing about what to do next. They had lock Merle in the adjacent cell as Daryl paces around nervously. Beau was leaning against the wall near Rick on the ground floor. Half of their group wanted to run away from the prison and the upcoming war with the governor; as Merle had put it, the man had the upper hand, loads of guns and men. The governor had the advantage and their little group might not make it out.  
Rick wanted to stay and fight; this was his prison, his territory, he had found it for his people, to keep them safe. 

“We should take advantage of the daylight.” Offers Carol as she stands on top of the stairs, tucking Judith in. 

“If Rick says we’re not running, then we’re not running.” Answers Glenn quite angrily and Beau wondered furtively what happened to him and Maggie back at Woodbury. 

Merle scared everyone with the governor talk and the argument became heated; their group started to panic as Beth ran down the stairs shouting, “What are we gonna do?” 

“I say we should leave. - Hershel says firmly and the little group turn towards him. -Now Axel is dead, and we cannot just sit here.” 

Rick ignores him as he turns around and walks away on them.

“Get Back Here! -Hershel shouts, his voice echoing angrily against the wall of the prison, making Rick stop in his track. The silence falling in the room. – You’re slipping, Rick. We’ve all seen it and we understand why but now is not the time. You once said this isn’t a democracy and now you gotta own up to that. I put my family’s life in your hands…” 

Before he could finish what he was going to say, Beau almost jump in front of Rick, facing Hershel, in a defensive fashion. 

“Yo, back off, old man! You think you can do better, then take your shit and leave!” She shouts back and everyone seem taken back from how defensive she got, standing up for Rick. 

“Hey, you back off! You’re not talking to my dad like that.” Maggie shouts back, coming face to face with Beau. 

Beau smirks and she confidently comes inches away from Maggie’s face, not without looking at her up and down with a sly smile. Beau looked like she was itching for a fight and she seemed confident she would win it. Her gait was almost feline, and Daryl could see “the thug” that Rick had seem to see in her.

“Shit. Got something to say, Lil’ Bo peep.” 

Merle barks a loud laugh. 

“Ahh man, I see why ya like the kid, Darylena.” He shouts towards his brother who were leaning on the metal edge on the first floor mezzanine. 

Before Maggie can answer, Rick steps in.

“Enough, Beau.” His voice is firm, and the order is clear. 

Something passes on Beau’s face and she loses her mocking smile, stepping away from Maggie. The group seem stunned that Rick had managed to get the teenager to obey him.

Rick carefully put a soft hand on Beau’s shoulder and this one jerks away slightly and stiffen, before turning towards him. She meets Rick’s icy blue eyes and he nods to her, quietly. She couldn’t be sure, but she thinks she sees some sort of recognition in her leader’s eyes. 

“Come with me to the tower, I need a sniper.” He adds quietly and they both step away from the cell block, leaving the rest of the group in stunned silence. 

The both of them settle down in the tower; Beau lays on the floor after setting her sniper on the floor on a small tripod as Rick sits, one knee on the floor and the stock cheek’s piece on his cheek. 

“I appreciate what you did back there. And for bringing Daryl back.” He says quietly, without looking at her, his eye fixated on the scope. 

“Don’t mention it.” Beau answers back without looking at him either. 

“But I need you to respect your elders.” He adds, his tone severe.

Beau snorts mockingly. 

“Aye, you can’t change me that much.” She says with a smile.

“I did get you to respect me.” He says as he takes a look at her.

Beau sighs.

“’Cause I answer to you.” She answers back to him seriously, looking back at him.

“I’m not asking you to obey him but to respect him. He’s a wise man and he deserves respect. You can’t talk to him or any other of our people like that again. We’re family, we need to stay a tight-knit group.” 

“Dude, lay off, will you? I’m trying here. – Beau tells him off defensively. -I answer to you and I care about Daryl and Carl…and maybe Beth. The rest ain’t my problem. You can’t force me to care for them.”

The silence comes back between them and they both keep watch for a little longer.

“I know you’re protecting yourself; I get it. But I can read people and I know I can count on you. You’re a part of this family.” 

His tone was implacable, and his stare was penetrating, and Beau couldn’t look away. She silently nodded to him before looking back through the scope. She struggled to hold her sniper in place with her broken hand and Rick seem to notice it. 

“I know I’m tough with you. I guess I’m just trying to keep you alive.” 

Beau exhales through the nose harshly. 

“Yo, we cool Mr Grimes. You don’t have to explain yourself.” She answers awkwardly as she wipes her nose.

When the night came, they let their place to Glenn and Maggie so they could keep watch. Beau was looking for Daryl and found him with his brother, locked away in the other room as they shared a saucepan of beans. As Beau approaches them and sat down at the round table, Daryl caresses her back gently.

“Ya were lookin’ fer me?” He asks.

“Yeah.” She shrugs as Daryl passes her the spoon he’s been eating with. 

Beau silently accepts it and starts eating from the same saucepan. 

“I need a haircut.” She says.

“Whatcha want?” Merle asks, eating noisily. 

“A buzzcut.” 

“Hybrid.” He answers back as he shakes his head. 

“Ight Captain Hook.” She shrugs back. 

“I like yer hair like dat.” Daryl says as he runs his fingers through her short hair. It was longer than a pixie cut now, she could now slightly brush her hair behind her ears. 

“It annoys me, it’s in my face. -She says as she eats another spoon of tomato bean. -But I’ll try keeping them long if that’s what you like.” She adds quietly, looking down at the saucepan, replaying Merle’s words in her head. 

“A girl should have long hair. Yer not a dyke, ain’t ya?” Merle says abruptly.

That statement made her blood boil for some reasons and she wanted to punch him really hard in the nose. 

“I am for a matter of fact.” She answers calmly, knowing that would make him angry. 

“But ya do jump my brotha’s dick.”

“I play for both teams.” 

She didn’t look at Daryl, but she could feel his curious gaze on her. 

“Ya hear dat brotha, ya got yerself a freeky lil bitch.” 

“Ight, I’m outtie.” She says as she stands up to go to bed.

It doesn’t take long for Daryl to join her up. He sits on his mattress that lays next to Beau’s as he removes his boots and shirt, exposing the deep scars of his back to her. Beau looks at him with a cocked eyebrow as she throws her baseball up in the air before catching it back again. 

“What? -He asks abruptly. -Ya saw them now anyway.” 

She nods quietly and she looks back up at the ceiling, playing catch alone.

“I’m sorry if I upset you back then, when I asked questions to Merle.” She whispers as he lays back down on his mattress. 

The cell block was dark and quiet. Most of the group were now in bed, except for Glenn and Maggie keeping watch and Beth looking after Judith. 

“What game were ya playin’ at?” He asks her with a hoarse voice.

“Ion know, I knew it’d piss you off.” 

“I told ya to stop testin’ me, Beau. If ya wanna know sumthin’ then ask me. Don’t fuel Merle’s bullshit.” 

“Yeah, I’m sorry. It was wrong of me. I won’t do it again. So, who’s Gracie?” She asks in a shy whisper. 

Daryl sighs. 

“Some kinda girlfriend. Nuthin’ serious, we just hooked up a few times but that’s it. -He turns on his side, towards her and he starts brushing her hair behind her ear. – ‘Told ya it’s the first time sumethin’ like dat happens to me. First time I feel this way.” 

“Even though, I don’t look like a girl?” Daryl could hear the insecurity and vulnerability in her tone and that made him flinch interiorly. 

“Don’t let Merle get into yer head. -He says firmly as he gently taps on her temple with two fingers. -Ya do look like a girl, Beau, I see it. The bitches I fucked ‘fore ain’t got nothing on you. They were drunk trailer trash hoes that would put out for a cigarette.” 

“I don’t really like picturing you with anyone else, to be honest. Pisses me off.” 

“Ya don’t have to worry ‘bout this. I ain’t ‘bout chasing women. – Beau nods and he sighs after sometimes as he catches the baseball before Beau, getting her attention. - There is something I wanna ask and I don’t want ya to lash out for it.” 

“Nah, I ain’t really gay, man. I just say that to piss off your brother.”

Daryl snorts.

“Nah, it wasn’t that. Though, I was curious, I ain’t gonna lie.” 

“So, what’s up?” 

“It’s about Rick. -He sighs and hides his face with his hand in embarrassment. -Do ya like him or sumthin’?”

“For real?” She looks at him with a frown.

“Yeah, I just notice ya guys seem closer, now. I’m…I don’t know, I’m just worried…I don’t know.” 

Beau couldn’t believe that this tough redneck could be so vulnerable and insecure. 

“He’s family now.” She whispers difficultly, like it hurt her mouth to get the words out. 

“What about me? Am I family?” 

“Is it ‘cause I stand up for him earlier?” 

“Partly.” 

Beau seems to wait for more, but Daryl doesn’t add anything else.

“When Merle was beating the shit outta you and for a split second, I thought you might not make it outta there; All I could think of was how I was gonna burn down Woodbury and kill every men, women and children left. You were family before him.” She adds firmly like she was trying to engrave the words in his head. 

“Okay, first of all, Merle wasn’t beating the shit outta me, I let him win. And second, it does touch me what ya just said but also kinda worries me. Children too?” 

“I stand for my family. I’d do what it takes for you, for Rick, or even Carl. You don’t know how far I’d go for Brad.” She confesses in a whisper and Daryl notices how she points a finger at her bear backpack when she mentions her brother.

Daryl nods with a frown, worried about how far she would actually go for her twin brother.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Merle died. 

He died trying to do the right thing. 

And things went down. The governor came to the prison with Chevy trucks and military arsenals, at least thirty men heavily armed. They were stealthy, organized, almost military trained. They shot at the prison, blowing up the towers and the gate; they walked into an empty prison. 

They thought Rick’s group had run. But they did not. Rick’s group were survivors, fighters and the prison were their territory. The plan was to trap them, shoot at them and draw them out. 

Hershel, Beth, Beau and Carl were waiting on the outside of the prison, while the rest of them were defending the prison, Maggie and Glenn on the first line. They managed to draw them out and Carl killed a teenage boy. 

“Rick! I’m telling you, he gunned down a teenage boy.” Hershel firmly said to Rick, once they all gathered back inside the prison. 

The silence fell awkwardly in the cell block as Rick was swallowing with difficulty the news. 

“He made a call!” Beau growled back.

Beau was anxious and she was walking around in circle, her gun squeezed firmly in her hand and Roosevelt on her back. Her eyes were wide and shiny, and she was repeatedly chewing on her lips; she looked like she had snorted two grams of coke and Daryl could tell she was losing ground again. 

“That was the wrong call!” Hershel’s voice echoed loudly against the walls. 

“Shit! Lay off, would you? He did what he had to; he protected your ass!” Beau shouted as she wiggled her gun towards the older man while talking, not in an aggressive manner but as a nervous and surpassed way. 

“Beau! Go take a walk. -Rick said severely and she looked back at him, jaded. - Now!” 

She sighed and passed a nervous hand on her sweaty face before walking outside the prison. Daryl was itching to go find her, but he knew better than to approach her when she was like that. 

After some time, the rest of the group gathered outside as Beau was smoking an almost finished cigarette, her cheekbones sticking out a lot more every time she drew upon her cigarette.  
They formed some sort of circle to discuss the plan of attack. Daryl came behind Beau, snaking a strong arm around her waist to pull her against him as he stole the cigarette from her fingers and finished it. They could feel some curious glances thrown towards them and Beau was too concentrated on the future fight to worry about Beth’s shocked expression. 

The plan was to go after the governor and his people and finish this war. Rick asked for Daryl, Michonne and Beau to come with him in his pursuit, while Glenn and Maggie would stay at the prison to protect Hershel, Beth, Judith and Carl. 

They found the abandoned Chevy trucks and lots of the Governor’s people dead on the road. Turns out the Governor had lost it and killed his own people after those ones realized the man was crazy and murderous. They found Tyreese and Sasha in Woodbury and those ones let them in; Rick, Michonne, Daryl and Beau went inside to look for Andrea. 

Andrea died. And once the people in Woodbury understood that the Governor had flee and abandoned them, they decided to pack up their things and follow them back to the prison. 

And as fast as the war came, it was gone. 

Little by little, their group became bigger and bigger; they had to clear two other blocks of the prison so the new people could have a place to sleep. The new people at the prison were like a breath of fresh air; a certain system installed itself where everyone had a job to do, whether it was cooking, cleaning, hunting, clearing and going on runs. 

They now had a few teenagers and children around, and so Carol decided to school them in some part of the prison; Beau and Carl had fervently refused to participate. Beau had even laughed, thinking Carol was joking, but she lost her smile when she realised Carole was serious. 

“No fucking way, lady! I ain’t going to school, that’s the one good thing that comes with this world, yo!” She had said standing up from the stairs she was sat on, and Rick and Daryl had burst out laughing when they saw the indignation of her face. 

Their old little group were all gathered in cell block C, after the night came down on Georgia. 

“Why not? It could be a good thing, Beau. -Beth’s sweet voice intervened. -We could go together.” She added with a sweet smile.

“I’m no jit! Hell no, people, you’re slippin’! That’s not happening.” 

They all started laughing. She was the only one standing in the middle of the cell, as the others were all sat down around a table that they had dragged in their cell block so they could share dinners and chats before bed. There were snacks and drinks on the table; Beau had found a bottle of Hennessey on her run and they were now sharing a glass of it. They weren’t drunk, maybe a little tipsy and they were all happy to be sat together and enjoy each other’s company, this almost felt like a family BBQ on a late summer night. Maggie was sat on Glenn’s lap, an arm around his neck, while Hershel was sat down near them as he was slowly enjoying and nursing his glass of Hennessey. Beth and Carl were sat at the table too, playing cards without paying much attention to it. Like Beau, Daryl wasn’t sat at the table; Beau always seemed to favor the stairs and Daryl seemed to favor a lonely old chair, against the wall near the table. 

“Alright, alright. You don’t have to, Beau. I’m not gonna lie, I need you outside, running errands for the group.” Rick settled as he smiled playfully, a small glass in his hand.

“Yes, Mr Grimes! -She exclaimed happily, making everyone laugh. -Thank you, man.” She added as she held her fist to him so he can bump it. This one took a second to understand what she wanted but finally bump his fist to hers, with a quiet laugh.

She caught Daryl’s eyes on them, and she could tell he felt left out. With time, she learnt that under his swag and cockiness, Daryl was probably the most insecure and vulnerable person she knew.  
All eyes were on her as she was somewhat the entertainment of the evening. 

“Ay, Papi. -Beau called out towards Daryl and he looked up, flabbergasted by her audacity. The rest of the group seemed shocked by the playful and flirty nickname. – Did you just come out of an oven? ‘Cause you’re totally hot.” She giggled.

People were shocked for a split second before they started cheering and laughing, even Michonne had let escape a little laugh. Daryl snorted mockingly, shaking his head slightly as a blush appeared on his face and even on top of his ears. 

“Aye, no more Hennessey fer ya, lil’ lady.” He said as he stood up, trying hard to downplay the situation as he felt his pockets, looking for his cigarette’s pack. He couldn’t seem able to look at anyone in the cell block. Apparently, the news that Beau was indeed a girl went around, without the need for her to say anything about it. 

He made his way towards Beau and took the bottle of Hennessy from her hand, before putting it down on the table.

“Shit, I think something’s wrong with my eyes. -She said frowning and Daryl took her face in his hand to investigate her eyes, worryingly. –‘cause I can’t take them off you.” She added, before she and the others started laughing as he sighed, shaking his head exasperated.

He tried to walk off, but Beau lazily slumped her arm around his waist, putting most of her weight on him.

“Damn, kiddo, yer heavy.” He mumbled playfully as they both walked outside of the prison block under the stunned looks of their little group.

They made their way to their favorite spot so they could smoke their cigarette in peace; usually at the back of the prison. Daryl leaned against the wall, his right feet against it as well, as he lit two cigarettes, one for him and the other one for her. 

She came inches away from him as she laid her left hand against the wall, near his shoulder, facing him, her position almost caging him against the wall. Daryl smirked in front of her cockiness and she grabbed her smoke with her right hand. They smoked slowly as they observed each other closely and in silence; Beau leaned her face towards his neck and she kissed him softly, multiple times. He closed his eyes as he enjoyed her soft lips on his neck, and he placed his hand on her lower back to pull her towards him. Their bodies touched, she had to tiptoe to reach his neck and when she went back on her feet, her face reached his chest. He exhaled the smoke one more time and he threw the rest of the cigarette to the floor. He cuddled her, always pulling her closer to him, kissing the top of her head as she got rid of her cigarette too.

“So, like that ya think I’m hot, uh?” He asked and Beau can literally hear his smile in the question. 

“Aye, but you know that, right?” 

“Never got called dat before.” He mumbled as their eyes meet.

“You’re a cutie, Dixon.” She whispered to him, their lips almost touching.

“Yer more beautiful.” He mumbled and she backed up abruptly. 

“Beautiful. -She repeated, frowning. -You mean ‘handsome’, right?” She added, smiling playfully. 

Daryl laughed quietly, shaking his head. She really has issues, he thought. 

“Yeah, yer handsome too.” He gave in to appease her.

Without leaning away from the wall, he managed to grab her XL t-shirt and pulled her back to him.

“What’s the deal with ‘papi’?” He asked her as he slid a hand underneath her large t-shirt to caress her back and give her a line of kisses along her jaw.

She giggled. 

“Whatcha mean? I’m from Florida, that’s how we call out some hot guys. You preferred when I called you ‘hick’.” She smirked and he kissed her hard.

“I can call you ‘Redneck’ or ‘hillbilly’, if you want?” She teased and he growled as he grabbed her roughly by her arms and swirled them around so he can push her against the wall, and he can now hold her there. 

“Shut up.” He growled as he then plunged on her lips. The kiss was rough and brutal, but they both knew they were playing. 

She kept her lips shut tight so he couldn’t slide his tongue and deepen the kiss. That seemed to frustrate him as he pushed hard against her lips with his tongue and held her face firmly in place with both his hand. She bursted out laughing as she managed to get away from him. Unwillingly, he laughed a quiet laugh too, before holding her back firmly against the wall. 

“Give in, Montgomery.” He hissed. 

He kissed her slowly at first but then chewed on her lower lip and Beau finally let him deepen the kiss. They both groaned in the kiss, and Daryl pushed himself completely on her, making her feel his hard on. They thrusted into each other dry as they couldn't stop kissing each other, their tongues fighting for dominance.  
Daryl suddenly grabbed a fist of her hair and pulled on it quite roughly, so her head snapped backward, exposing her throat to him. She whined slightly under the sudden act and he came to bite her throat quite aggressively. 

“Shit, yer drivin’ me crazy.” He growled in her neck and Beau could hear his ragged breathing. 

Beau went to cup his harden dick on top of his jeans and he let escape a masculine groan. He slapped her hand away. 

“Ask fer it nicely.” He ordered her. 

Beau frowned, not liking the direct order but Daryl didn't let her think as he reaffirmed the hold on her hair slightly. He came to chew her earlobe before kissing and licking it gently. 

“Come on, baby. Call me whatchu called me earlier.” He whispered to her ear with a hoarse voice. 

Beau licked her lips nervously.

“Please, papi, give it to me.” She whispered shyly, as the words sounded foreign in her mouth. 

Daryl giggled quietly as he thrusted against her, making her wince.

“In English, sweetheart.” He growled as he bites her lower lip.

Beau frowned slightly when she understood what he meant. She swallowed hard, hesitant. 

“It’s okay, baby, it’s just us. Only between us.” He tried to reassure her as their eyes met and something seemed to pass between them. Was it trust? Beau did not know but she nodded slightly. 

“Please, daddy, give it to me.” She whispered and before she could feel embarrassed about it, Daryl was already on her, kissing her deeply as he grabbed her ass firmly, pushing her against his hardon.  
They thrusted against each other before Daryl lifted her up into his arm and Beau was left with no other option than wrapping her legs around his waist, her back still against the wall. 

“Shit! Imma fuck ya so hard, right here.” He growled as he pulled down her football short, leaving Beau ass naked. With one arm he held her up, helped with the wall, as he opened his jeans and free his hard and swollen cock. 

He spat in his hand and spread it over his dick roughly, before pushing inside her. Beau was a little bit surpassed by the situation as she held onto him closely and she winced under the penetration. She ground her teeth and hid her face in Daryl’s neck, which she bit and kissed. 

He gave her sometimes to get used to him before he trusted into her, fucking her raw against the wall, her back getting scratch. Their breathing was ragged under the efforts and sensations and Daryl had to push Beau’s face deeper into the crook of his neck when she let a moan escape her.

“Shh, darlin’, gotta be quiet.” He struggled to say, out of breath. 

“Do ya like daddy’s cock?” He asked with a hoarse voice, to her ear.

“Shut up, Dixon.” She growled back.

“Say it, baby.” He said as he kissed her shoulder softly. 

Beau did not say anything so after a minute or two, he stopped moving, obtaining a frustrated growl from her. 

“Come on, be a good girl.” He laughed quietly.

She sighed annoyed as she bit him hard on the neck. 

“Yes, I like daddy’s cock.” She gave in and Daryl thrusted back hard into her.

“That’s right, sweetheart. Yer only allowed to cum on daddy’s cock.” He said, grinding his teeth as he fucks her hard until she cum. 

As he felt her contracting around him, he quickly pulled out and finished himself off on her lower belly. 

“Phew…” She sighed, tired as Daryl carefully set her down on her feet. 

“Yeah, same.” He said, laughing as he pulled back up her football shorts. 

Beau cleaned herself up with her t-shirt and grimaced. 

“Want ma shirt?” He offered, slightly embarrassed to have soiled yet another of her t-shirt.

“But what about you?” She considered.

Daryl shrugged and unbuttons his shirt, leaving him bare chested. She removed her dirty t-shirt and put on his shirt, making Daryl laughs.

“What?” 

“Ya look proper backwood redneck like dat.” 

She gave him the finger.

“You’d like that, aren’t ya?” 

“You definitely lookin’ like ma girl now.” 

“I’m your girl?” 

“Ya don’t wanna?” He asked, nonchalantly as he lit up a new cigarette, but Beau knew that he was lowkey waiting for an answer as he needed to be reassured. 

“Yeah, I guess I am. -She shrugged back at him, playing it cool but her heart was beating like crazy. - Are you gonna go back inside with no shirt?” 

“Well, yeah.” 

“I don’t want other girls to see you like that.” She mumbled quietly but he heard her.

“I don’t think anyone will even look.” He assured her as he took another drag of his smoke. 

“Umm, Ion know. Carol seems pretty keen.” 

Daryl genuinely laughed at that.

“Nah, come on.” He said as he caressed her cheek gently. 

“Pookie.” Beau said, mimicking Carol unreasonably, making Daryl laugh even more. 

“Yer jealous?” He asked and despite the playful tone, she can hear some sort of seriousness. 

Beau shrugged.

“She better not get cocky; I can be lethal.” Beau said with a serious face and for a second Daryl did not know if it was a joke or if there was an existing threat.

“Ya don’t have to worry. She jus’ a friend and she knows I luh ya. -He mumbled as he kissed her forehead. - It’s just you baby Beau.” 

“Still, don’t parade around, kay?” 

“Ya got it.”

They kissed before making their way back to the cell block slowly. Most of their group went to bed, except for Maggie and Glenn who were playing cards at the table and Rick and Hershel were discussing ‘gardening’ and strategies to protect the prison. 

As promised, Daryl discretely and rapidly made his way upstairs to their cell so he could grab a new shirt and put it on, followed closely by Beau. They looked like two teenagers, up to no good and it didn’t’ go unnoticed as Maggie was gossiping something to Glenn and Rick had his eyes on them. 

They both got ready for bed, removing their shoes and Beau left her loaded gun near her mattress. Daryl was the first one to lay down, and he opened his arms for Beau to come lay with him.  
They now had moved into a cell, putting both their mattress on the floor next to each other and getting rid of the bunk beds. Roosevelt was nicely sat near Beau’s mattress, with her gun and trainers. Daryl had his shirts thrown into a corner of the cell, and his crossbow and arrows were at the bottom on the mattresses. Their heads were near the bars and they managed to tie up a sheet on the bars to give them privacy.

Daryl switched off the oil light on the floor and Beau cuddled up to him, closely. 

“’Night, Daddy.” She whispered playfully, making Daryl snort as he wiped his nose, embarrassed. 

“Was that okay?” He asked quietly to her ear, sounding unsure and shy, his cockiness long gone.

“Yeah, ‘thought it was hot. -She answered back. For you too?”

“’Course, it was, sweetheart. Ya drove me crazy back there.” He said with a gruff voice before lifting himself up on his arm, turning towards her and kissing her deeply. 

She pushed him away gently and laid him back down so she can cuddle his side. 

“Don’t do anything weird in front of Roosevelt.” She growled slightly. 

He snorted mockingly, before pulling her to him.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The prison was gone. 

Weeks had passed at the prison, peaceful weeks where their community had grown and thrive; until the ‘disease’ appeared. The ‘disease’ was some sort of very aggressive flu, making people burning up with fever and coughing blood until they suffocate on their own blood and die. 

They lost a lot of people from that ‘flu’, including Beth. 

Beth and Glenn were both infected and they all thought they both were going to die from it, but Glenn managed to pull through. Unfortunately, Beth had succumbed. They buried her in the prison court as Maggie refused to burn her corpse, like the other infected. 

Rick was obliged to kick Carol out of the group after she decided to set on fire two infected before they even turned. Daryl seemed pretty affected by it, knowing how much harder it would be for her to survive on her own. If she survives, at all.

Beth’s death and Carol’s departure had shaken their little group but over the weeks, Michonne, Tyreese and Sasha became very close to their little group and once again their family felt strong and tight knit like. Beau could not lie to herself anymore, she cared for those people. She tried to fight it, to stay solitaire and jaded but after spending months with them through high and low, she grown used to them, she loved coming back to them, in a secured place. The prison and those people had become her home, her family. They had each other’s back and now that she lost all of it, the need to find them back was immense, it felt crucial. Vital. 

Little time after the ‘disease’ had seemed to disappear, the governor made his reappearance. He wanted the prison and he wanted them dead. The governor took Hershel and Michonne hostage and Rick had tried to preach upon the governor to let them go and even offered for him and his people to come live with them. It failed and Hershel died in front of them. Hershel’s death unleashed war between the two group of people and shots were fired from everywhere. Beau was on the roof of the prison, taking shot with her snipper as Daryl was shooting a machine gun. Bullets and explosions were raining and in a matter of seconds, the prison ground became a war zone; people were running everywhere in panic as the governor and his people drove through the prison’s gates with a tank, demolishing their protection and letting the walkers in. The shells from the tank demolished the prison’s walls and like that their secured place was gone.  
Very quickly their little group had to fight the governor’s people and the walkers. Beau stayed perched on the rooftop, as she gunned down the people and walkers that came too close to her people, but too quickly another explosion forced her to leave her position and make her way down. She saw Maggie drag a very weaken Glenn to the safety of the bus where most people that could not fight were waiting to be driven away from this war zone. Smoke and debris were blurring her vision as she saw people running around and getting shot in every direction. She looked desperately for Daryl as she saw him throwing a grenade into the cannon of the tank.  
As she was going towards him, she heard a terrified cry; and she turned around to discover two walkers slowly kneeing near a baby ‘seat. Her heart stopped when she understood that Judith was in that baby seat and without thinking, she ran towards the walkers, opening her automatic knife as she went. She had kicked a walker in the head, ejecting it to the ground as she struck the other one in the head multiple time. She grabbed Judith in her arms, her heart beating a million per seconds as she looked afar through the prison ground to find no one left. A hundred of walkers were coming her way and she decided to run away from the prison.

She ran and ran until she couldn’t breathe anymore. She stopped, almost falling to the ground as she successfully outran the walkers. She removed her bear backpack as she laid to the ground, breathing like an asthmatic. Judith was on her, crying loudly and Beau tried her best to shush her as she petted her back. She never even handled a baby until now and she sure as hell was not a natural at this. Time passed, she didn’t know how much but Judith was not crying anymore, and the sun was setting. She was observing the sky getting darker and darker as she realized that they lost the prison and she lost her people. It was just her now, alone again on the road. Well, not completely alone, she had a baby now. She could not lose it like last time, not with baby Judith, she thought. She checked on the toddler and noticed Judith had fallen asleep. She swallowed hard as she squeezed her gun tightly. She had this; she would bring that child back to Rick alive; she would find them. There, alone on the ground with the baby on her chest, she fell asleep in the middle of the tall grasses, in the middle of the field. 

She woke up with a startled jump, sitting herself up when the memories of the previous day came back to her. She tightened her hold on her gun, reassured to feel the weight of it as she scanned her surroundings. Damn, how could have she been so careless? Falling asleep in the middle of a field, uncovered? It was not only about her anymore. Judith. Beau looked down to find the awaken toddler, sucking on her thumb. They observed each other for a while, Judith had bright shiny honey eyes with short silky blond hair, her cheeks were rosy, and Beau thought that she was a cute baby. Judith was a quiet baby, not demanding and Beau wondered if the new world had changed children; could they feel how precarious the world was now? Did they know not to ask for anything? Beau tried to swallow but her throat was dry, and the sun was already high in the sky, blinding her. They did not have any food, or drinks, or shelter.  
Beau sighed heavily as she passed a shaky hand over her already sweaty face. She looked at her bear backpack for a while; “I got this.” She whispered to herself. She stood up, throwing her sniper on her back, then Roosevelt, and finally picked up Judith in her arm.  
She walked through fields and then into the woods for three days, feeding herself and Judith crushed bays she found in her surroundings. The weight of her backpack, snipper and Judith started to take a toll on her, she needed proper food and water and a place to rest. Beau barely slept during those three nights, always keeping guard on them both, she simply couldn’t fall asleep when they were in the open.  
She needed to do what she did best: scavenging. After a few hours of walk, Beau found a rail track and decided to follow it. If it wasn’t for her burning arms and back, she would probably enjoy this walk, it was somewhat peaceful. The track was surrounded by fluffy green trees, protecting her from the direct ray of sun and a nice breeze was making the walk so much easier. 

‘Terminus. A sanctuary for all.’ 

She read in her head. Could it be they all saw this sign? Could it be where they went?  
She bit her lips, thoughtfully.  
She breathed deeply as she carried on towards that Terminus place, hoping to find her people. When her arms and back became too tired to carry on carrying Judith, she decided to cut through the dense woods in order to find some shelter and the luck must have been on her side as she found an old looking lake house. The house was made of wood and was painted with a nice pastel green color, a river was running at the back of it and Beau truly believed she hit the jackpot.  
She took her automatic knife out as she discretely made her way into the house, she opened the back-door quieter. Unwillingly, she put Judith to the ground so she could clear the house, without a baby in her arms. She was not relaxed with the idea of leaving Judith alone, sat to the ground for any walker to devour her or for any sickos to come snatch her but she did not feel as she had any say in the matter.  
Once satisfied that the area around the house was ‘safe’ enough, Beau stalked inside the house quietly, ready to kill any dead or living for that matter.  
The house was empty, it seemed as whoever lived there before had packed up and ran. Beau came to get Judith and locked the door behind them. She settled the baby on the sofa as she went through every cupboards and drawers in the kitchen and Beau thanked all the gods above when she found canned food, biscuits and chips, some water and even some old sodas. Everything was expired but, in those days, and age, that did not matter. This was gold. Beau grabbed everything in her arms, in a messy pile as she clumsily brought it to the sofa where the baby was. She took the water bottle and tried to hold it to Judith’s mouth so she could drink but she seemed to struggle without a baby bottle. Beau drank from the bottle a little to show her and Judith seemed to copy her and managed to drink from the bottle. Beau managed to warm up a can of beans for the both of them and the two of them ate what they could. Beau was pretending to feed Roosevelt biscuits, making Judith giggle. When the evening came, Beau was nervous again, walking circle around the house, checking each doors and windows in some paranoid trance, her gun tightly held in her hand. Judith had fallen asleep on the sofa near the chips and biscuits wrappers and Beau sighed as she looked at the child and then Roosevelt who was sat down on the sofa too. 

“I’ve got us, I’ve got us.” She repeated twice quietly to her bear backpack, her mind drifting to that Terminus place. She sat down against the wall, facing Judith and Roosevelt as she enjoyed being sat down and letting her tensed muscles relax. 

Two days passed rather peacefully. They would eat and drink what Beau gathered and finally, Beau had managed to sleep through the nights, getting a well deserve rest after walking for three days straight on no food and no sleep. Beau went through the house, discovering it and see what it had to offer but she could not find anything interesting except a few fishing rods and baits. This was clearly a holiday house, a lake house where its owners would come and rest over a weekend to fish and have BBQ. She found out the water was running in this house as it was probably supplied by a well or maybe even the river. The water did not seem well filtered however, as it was not clear but rather had a dirty yellowish color and Beau figured it must because it hadn’t been used in a while. After some time, the water would finally run clearer and she decided she would give a bath to Judith and wash herself too later that day.  
As Judith was chewing on some blanket Beau had found; she stepped outside, enjoying the breeze and calmness of the place. She inhaled deeply through the nose and exhales slowly with her eyes shut. She could smell the earthy smell of nature; the river, the grass, the trees and the soil. She loved those smells and it somehow calmed her down. It reminded her of the fishing trips she went on weekends with her brother and also of Daryl. That’s right, it reminded of Daryl, it was probably why all those smells and elements was calming her down, because it reminded her of Daryl Dixon. Or was it the contrary? Maybe Daryl was able to calm her down because it reminded her of nature and the wilderness? 

No.

Don’t. 

Focus. She thought. Don’t think about him.

The hick was untouchable, right? He was alive and so was everybody else. They would find each other. They could be anywhere; a sly voice whispered to her ear. She swallowed with difficulties as she could feel like a metal ball was stuck in her throat as a strong feeling of solitude and helplessness hit her once again. She inhaled and exhaled slowly, grinding her teeth. She could not afford to lose it, she had people to found and a baby to keep alive. She could not hear anything except the slow breeze blowing some leaves around. There weren’t any birds in the sky anymore and that fact amazed Beau. She looked up the sky and she felt so small suddenly. As the sun was setting down slowly, Beau came back inside the house before locking it and making sure they were safely barricaded. She grabbed her weapons and threw Roosevelt on her back before taking Judith in her arms. She went upstairs into the single bedroom of the house and closed the door behind them. She sat both Judith and Roosevelt on the old bed and went to the bathroom to run a bath. She waited extra time for the water to clear before plugging the bath. The water was cold but not freezing and it would have to do. She grabbed Judith and awkwardly removed her clothes so she could bath the baby. Judith cried as the water was cold and Beau hurried up to grab a bar of soap and wash the child quickly. She dried her up using an old and rather itchy towel and then clumsily put back her clothes on her before putting Judith to bed. She tucked her in and rubbed her back to calm her down and it somehow worked. Beau knew she was not as good as Beth or Carol when it came to children, but she truly thought that Judith might be able to feel the helplessness, the stress and fatigue that she might feel.  
Without waiting to see if Judith had fallen asleep, Beau disappeared inside the bathroom, removing her clothes so she could bath as well. She winced when she got in contact with the water but sat down nonetheless, enjoying the fact she could soak and wash. Little by little, she completely relaxed in the water, even enjoying the coldness of it as it was as hot as an oven outside during the day. 

She must have fallen asleep because she woke up with a start as she heard some noise downstairs which woke her up abruptly. The house was plunged in darkness and silence and Beau stopped breathing for a second so she could focus on the noise downstairs and another loud bang occurred. She left out a shaky breath as she knew someone was trying to get inside the house. She jumped outside of the bath in a split second, her heart beating strong and fast in her chest as anxiety and fear spread inside her like a deadly poison. Without drying herself up, she grabbed her dirty and over worn football shorts and XL t-shirt that she put on at the speed of light. Bare feet, she walked quietly in the adjacent bedroom as she heard another loud bang and glass shattering. She looked at Judith who was deeply sleeping and Roosevelt next to her and she felt her throat drying as she heard whispering and laughing. 

They. Were. Inside. The. House. 

She stealthily walked to her loaded gun and automatic knife. A million scenarios flashed in her head. What should she do? Take Judith and her bear backpack quietly and leave though the window? Without waking her up. Could she manage that? Would they follow them? Could she stay and fight? How many were they?  
She was frantic and her palms were sweaty, her eyes were wide, and she felt like throwing up. She looked towards the small windows and she knew there was no way in hell, she could climb down or jump with Judith in her arms. She exhaled weakly and she just realized she had been holding her breath.  
Maybe she should go downstairs and take them by surprised? Or maybe hide upstairs? If Judith woke up and cried, it was the end. Before she could think any longer, she heard the old wooden stairs creak under somebody’s weight, and she knew she would have to improvise and hope for the best. In a frenzied state, she took her bare backpack, putting it on the floor, and kicking it under the bed in some desperate way to hide it as she quietly walked back to the tiny bathroom and leaned herself against the wall, near the open door. She leaned up straight, her gun held tight in her hand close to her as her heart was beating two hundred beats per second. 

There was no lock on the door so when she heard the handle being turned, she knew someone was in the bedroom. In the same room as Judith and Roosevelt. She would have preferred walkers; they were simpler creatures and hence easier to kill. People were smarter, dangerous, devious even and they were harder to predict. 

“Aw, my god. What do we have here? Who are you, beautiful?” 

It was a woman’s voice. Beau swallowed hard as she peaked at her discreetly. She was white with short messy dark hair. She must have been about thirty. She took Judith in her arms and Judith was slowly waking up. 

“Aren’t you a cutie? Tammie! Come up here!” She shouted, making Judith winced and cry. 

Another woman came into view, she looked slightly younger but definitely over twenty-five years old. Tammie had shoulder length, dyed up yellow blonde hair. They looked dirty and crazy, they had wide glossy eyes. Their clothes however seemed fresher than them and Beau guessed they were scavengers.

“What a sweetheart! Come to mama. -The blonde-haired woman said with an overly sweet voice as she took a crying Judith in her arms. Beau took a quick look and she could read the distress on Judith’s face as she helplessly pushed on the woman’s face with her little arms, trying to get away from her. She could not blame Judith for crying that loud, the bitch was scary. -I wonder who you belong to?” She added with a sly smirk on her face as she scanned the room suspiciously. 

Beau closed her eyes for a second, evaluating the situation and the options she had, as she stayed hidden. Should she come out now and fight? Should she wait and see? Would they walk away, or would they try to take Judith away, harm her or even kill her? The second option seemed somehow more plausible. 

What would Brady do? It always came back to this, isn’t it? What her tall, strong and book smart brother would do? Would he wait and see? Because it might be the smarter thing to do or was it cowardice? Or would he fight? Strike first, think later? That was more like her.

Her.

What would Beau do? She never really asked herself that. Maybe because her parents always seemed to think she was always wrong, doing wrong. She was such a disappointment to them, always comparing her to her twin brother: Why can’t you do things right like your brother? How come Brady can do it, him? How come he got the grades, but you don’t? We gave you the same opportunities and chances and yet, Brady seem to excel everywhere you can’t. 

SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP. She grinded her teeth before re-opening her eyes. She could hear the two crazy bitches ‘playing’ with Judith and she reaffirmed her hold on her .45. 

Fuck it, she’ll do it her way, for a change. 

Click

“Put the kid down.” Beau ordered; her voice unfaltering as she put the cold muzzle of her .45 on the temple of the brunette woman.

They both pretended to be shocked and scared before laughing it off like hyenas, pissing Beau off.  
Yeah, they were crazy alright. Beau exhaled slowly through her nose and without another thought, took the shot.

Pop

The brunette’s brain splattered all over the sheets and walls of the bedroom, her body falling limply to the ground in a matte noise. The ringing noise of the shot echoed loudly against the walls of the old lake house, momentarily deafening Beau, Judith and the other intruder. Judith’s cry became louder and Beau can read shock and anger on that Tammie woman. Beau pointed her gun at her, but she used Judith as a protection. 

“Put her down!” Beau growled through her teeth. 

“Tammie. What’s going on up there?” A masculine voice screamed through the stairs.

Beau grinded her teeth. Shit, there were more of them. Beau shook her head ‘no’ to the woman to keep her quiet, but she smirked back viciously. 

“Cyrus! Come here! Quick!” The blonde woman called out, shouting, still holing a crying Judith in her arms. 

The silence fell back into the house and they could hear that Cyrus whispered to someone else before they could hear the old stairs creaking under their weights. Beau could feel her heart beating so hard and loud, and she could feel sweat dripping from her temples and her hands getting wet. 

Tammie laughed and Beau could not wait to kill that bitch.

“You’re so screwed, girlie.” She added with an annoying piercing voice. 

Beau swallowed hard as she could feel something bad was going to happens. Her intuition was telling her she was fucked. The cowards were behind the door, not daring to open it yet. Did they even care about that blonde woman? Beau had her gun pointed firmly at Tammie, but she could not take the chance to hit Judith or even hurt her. She knew the crazy bitch would shield herself with the baby if she had too. Before she could think any longer, the door was thrown opened and a black guy pounced on her with a crowbar. Taken by surprised, Beau shot randomly into the crowd and she heard someone shout so she knew she touched one of them. The black guy had hit her hard on her abdomen with the crowbar, making Beau hunched over as she could feel her lungs emptied themselves under the strength of the hit. They all heard the sinister crack, but Beau felt the pain more than she heard her ribs broke under the hit. The pain was intolerable, she never felt anything like this before and she had to grind her teeth tightly to not scream. The black guy hit her once more on her back, which sent her to the ground. Beau fell on the floor in a matte noise, her gun held tightly in her hand. They were surrounding her, there were three of them, they all looked rough, dirty and crazy. A bunch of scavengers with a ‘W’ carved on their forehead. 

“Cyrus, she gunned down Sara.” Tammie said towards a scruffy, short haired guy. The guy looked at Sara’s dead body and let escaped a hysterical scream. 

“You’re dead, bitch!” He spat as he jumped on top of Beau with a kitchen knife. That knife could have easily belonged to Michael Myers. Beau was terribly hurt, and each movement was killing her, she could barely lift her arm up. With a desperate and helpless move to protect herself and stop that Cyrus guy to actually stab her, she plunged her left empty hand towards the knife and this time she let escaped a piercing scream when the wide sharp blade of the knife pierced through her hand. Beau looked, horrified, at the blade stuck in her hand, blood spurting everywhere as Cyrus was looking at it, amazed. She growled loudly as a maddening anger filled her up and she lifted her gun, anger making her forget about the pain momentarily and she shot him in the head. The shot was clear and clean, Cyrus’s head snapped backwards under the strength of the shot, his brain scattered everywhere on the walls and his people. The shot had seemed to startle them, and Beau took the opportunity to kick Cyrus’s lifeless body away from her, freeing the knife from her head at the same time. 

She groaned in pain as she tried to stand up, but the black guy kicked her hand, making her gun fly across the room. He punched her hard on the face, sending her back to the floor, making her dizzy and breathless. He hit her again and again. She could taste blood in her mouth as she weakly tried to hit back at him, but he was too strong, too crazy and she was too much in pain. 

“Wait! Reece, that’s enough.” A masculine voice called, and the black guy stopped. Reece was still on top of her, she could feel his weight, despite her state. She seriously felt weak and about to pass out and right now, she wouldn’t mind if she did. 

“Why? She killed two of our people.” Reece spoke through his teeth.

“Killing her would be doing her a favor. Let her rot in this world.” 

Beau could not see very well, and she was whizzing, like an asthmatic, she felt like falling asleep, but she could hear loud and clear Judith desperate and terrified cries, keeping her awake. She could not give up. She tried to sit herself up, jaw locked under the pain, but her shaky muscles would not allow her. 

“Holy shit! Look at that guys, she’s twitching.” Tammie said out loud, laughing.

One of the guys came to her and kicked her hard in the stomach, making Beau hunched on herself painfully, the waves of pain flowing through her. He probably hit her on her broken ribs, she coughed some blood before she stared blankly ahead of her, tears slowly making their way on the wooden floor. 

“Take her shit. She’s as good as dead without her weapons.” The same guy said before leaving the room. 

“I’m taking your baby, she’s mine now.” Tammie whispered sadistically to her ear as Beau was staring at Roosevelt under the bed. 

Looking at her bear backpack was calming her down and she could hear him. The bear was moving and talking, his face expression changing and his little arms and paws moving along as he talked. 

‘Are we going to see Brady play Baseball this afternoon? You know he is playing in the World Series for the first time. We can’t be late, Beau.’ 

“He is probably waiting.” She answered back with a broken voice, coughing. 

“What you’re saying, girl?” Tammie asked.

“I wasn’t talking to you.” Beau whispered weakly. 

Tammie frowned before putting her cheek to the wooden floor to look into the same direction that Beau was looking. Tammie crawled to grab Roosevelt and laughed looking at it. 

“Were you talking to your bear? -Tammie said, laughing before throwing the bear backpack on her back. -I guess, that’s mine too now.” 

The cheap dyed hair woman left the room as Beau’s vision was mottled with dark spot, making it hard for her to see, and the last thing Beau saw before passing out, was Roosevelt on that woman’s back; he was telling her something, but she couldn’t hear it. Her ears were ringing and then nothing.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

“Here you are. -Brady Montgomery sighs happily as he sits on the bed, Indian style, looking down at Beau. -I’ve been looking for you everywhere, Beau.”

Beau blinks a few times as she looks at her twin brother; he looks about fifteen years old here. He is wearing a bright blue football jersey: Miami Dolphins, that matches his blue eyes. 

“Did you even go to school today?” Brady asks with a frown. 

“I skipped.” Beau answers as she sat Indian style as well on the old wooden floor of the lake house.

“Again. -Brady sighs. -I won’t be able to cover for you forever, you know.” He stands up and walks to the window, looking outside. 

“I missed you today, you know. There was a fight at the cafeteria, you would’ve love to see that.” Brady says happily as he turns around towards Beau and she can see his braces as he sports a playful smile. She used to wear braces too around that age. 

“I missed you too. I didn’t wanna run into Jason, we got maths together.” 

“Wait, as in Jason Miller? Do I need to sort him out?” Brady asks with an angry frown; his posture is defensive as he steps towards Beau.

“He’s older than us, you know.” Beau shrugs as to say, ‘you cannot do anything against him’. 

“Hey, I can take him.” He says with a cocky smile as he points his thumb towards his chest playfully and Beau smiles too. 

Beau stands up and she frowns when she notices that the night had fallen on them in a matter of seconds. The sun had been so bright a second ago and now it was cold and dark, and the atmosphere was somewhat strange. The silence is eerie between them and Brady loses his smile. 

“Beau. What are we doing here exactly?” He asks quietly, all playfulness gone. 

Beau frowns confused as she scans the room.

“I think I was looking for you.” She whispers. 

“Here?” Brady asks with a laugh and Beau can see the incredibly on his face and she feels silly and embarrassed for a second. He walks towards her and carefully takes her bleeding hand. She hadn’t noticed her hand was injured. 

“When will you learn? -He sighs quietly as he studies her hand. -I told you, if you get into trouble, I’ll take care of it for you, you don’t have to fight, Beau.” 

“They took Roosevelt. -She answers quietly with a sad expression. – He said something before they took him, but I didn’t get it.” 

“Stand up.” Brady says as he looks up at her, from her hand to meet her eyes. 

“What?” She asks confused as a frown draws itself between her eyebrows. 

“That’s what he said.” 

The same eerie silence falls on them once again.

“Beau, stand up.” Brady says louder and Beau opens her mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. Brady grabs her by the shoulders as if he wanted to shake her awake. 

“Stand up! -He shouts and Beau can see a mix of anger and distress painted all over his face. -Stand up! STAND UP!” 

Beau woke up with a start and the first thing she felt was pain. She grunted as the first ray of sunshine was momentarily blinding her and she hurriedly closed her eyes shut again. She was slowly coming back to reality and she grunted again as she felt a wave of pain going through her whole body; she could feel a throbbing pain throughout her body, the hard floor she was laying on and the cold breeze of the early hours. She tried to re-open her eyes with difficulties and despite the blinding sunlight making her frown, she could tell it was very early in the morning when she looked through the small window as she stayed laid down on the wooden floor. The thick mist floating in the air was a giveaway, it was probably around six in the morning. She must have been out for a few hours since the scavengers left, maybe three or four hours. Flashbacks of the previous night were coming back to her and a deep feeling of helplessness filled her. 

Alone. 

She was alone once again. 

Alone and bleeding. 

Beau was still on the wooden floor of the old lake house’s bedroom; her body stiffen from passing out on the hard floor for hours.   
She grinded her teeth under the effort of getting herself up, turning herself on her side, both hands to the floor as she tried to push herself up. She coughed a mix of blood and saliva and each muscle contraction that came with coughing was agony; her whole body was shaking with pain and nerves. Once standing, she limped with difficulty to the adjacent bathroom, the old wooden floor was creaking with each step, under her weight. Her breathing was laborious, she was wheezing, and every movement was torture. She dragged herself to the old porcelain sink that she grabbed with both hands to maintain herself up. She looked up into the mirror to investigate the damages those sickos had done. Her left eye was bloody, it looked like an infinite pool of blood and a black bluish bruise was covering her left eye and almost half of her face. Her lips were swollen and opened as a deep bloody gash was deforming them. Her whole body felt like a huge bruise, she felt broken. She slowly pulled her XL t-shirt up to discover a massive purple bruise covering her now slightly crooked ribs and she knew some of them were broken as each time she breathed, the pain was intolerable. She then looked at her bloody hand, a deep bloody gash was in the center of her palm, where the blade of that man’s knife had pierced through her hand. It somehow stopped bleeding as dark clotted blood seemed to have covered the opening of the wound.   
She carefully looked for some bandages so she could cover it and make sure it healed as much as possible. She sat on the edge of the old porcelain bath, after finding some bandages on the shelves near the sink, and cautiously wrapped her hand up. A deep feeling of sadness and helplessness travelled through her and a broken sob escaped her. She broke down into tears and her cries finally transformed into a furious scream. She stood up angrily and hit the mirror above the sink multiple times with both hands, her jaw locked, before thrashing around in the old bathroom. She threw around everything she could get her hands on, with all her strength against the walls. She was manic but suddenly, she stopped when she noticed an old shaver with clippers. She was out of breath from her break down as she looked at the shaver. The batteries were inside it and it worked; without thinking twice, she bent over the sink with difficulties and shaved her head, leaving her with a buzzcut. Shaving her hair was somewhat therapeutic to her, and as soon as she looked at herself with her new military cut, Beau felt ten times better, calmer, like she had the situation under control. 

She looked carefully at her reflection in the mirror, her eyes still wet and swollen from crying, she could see the droplets of tears in her long and thick eyelashes. She observed deeply her bloody eye before her eyes travelled to her opened and deformed lips, her black eye that covered half of her face. She looked scary; she locked her jaw angrily and right now, with her determined demeanor, beaten up face and buzzcut, Beau looked dangerous. 

F.E.R.A.L 

Beau looked feral. 

She inhaled deeply and slowly despite the pain in her ribcage as right now, Beau could barely feel the pain as anger and madness was all she could feel. Her anger and insanity took too much space for any other feeling or sensation. She limped back slowly to the bedroom where the woman and the man she killed the previous night were lying dead in a puddle of their own blood, their brain scattered all over the room. She stood there for a whole minute, near the bathroom’s door as she looked at them blankly before making her way to the bed so she could sit down on the edge of it. She stepped on the blood of the brunette woman she killed, not caring to avoid it, her trainers splashing in her blood, making a disturbing splashy noise. She finally sat there, in silence, looking at her clasped hands. 

Judith. 

She lost her. The baby was gone. They took her. 

She had one job and she screwed it up. She had to protect her and bring her back safely to their group and she failed. But that was not nearly as important as the bear.

The bear was gone. 

Roosevelt had been kidnapped. 

Taken away from her and that thought made her sick to her stomach as pure anxiety filled her up with something close to fury. 

She needed to leave now and go after them if she wanted to have a chance to find them. She exhaled deeply and slowly as she thought of a plan. It had only been a few hours, so she had an actual shot at finding them. However, they took everything, including all her weapons. She couldn’t go into this blindly, this time they would kill her for sure. She would have to operate cautiously, but she couldn’t wait here for too long either. As she went through a million scenarios in her head, she opened the drawer of the night table near her and found an old bible and a Zippo. She curiously studied the silver Zippo as she fiddled with it, lost in her thought. She flicked it open a few times, playing with it and finally lit it, the flame was weak but there. She seemed to lose herself looking at the flame before closing it. She frowned as she looked ahead of her before standing up and looking frantically though out the house for a Zippo fuel refill bottle. She went through the kitchen’s drawer and finally found what she looked for. She sat at the small and wobbly table in the kitchen as she refilled the Zippo with fuel. 

This was her plan. 

It was not much; her plan was precarious and built on luck, but it was her only option. She had one shot at this, and she could not fail. She let the water ran from the kitchen sink and waited until it cleared up before bending with difficulties so she could reach the water flow. She drank before splashing water all over her face. She would have to leave now as those scavengers were probably asleep in some nearby house. That’s what scavengers do; they are nomad who travel from house to house at night. They always wait for the night to fall so they attack on people when they are asleep and hence at their most vulnerable state. They steal, rape and kill before moving onto the next one. If Beau was right, they would probably be sleeping at this time and for most of the day in another shack. This was her chance to get Judith and Roosevelt back.

Before coming out of the back-kitchen door, she grabbed a large rusty kitchen knife she had found in one of the drawers, holding it firmly in her hand.   
She had already passed two other lake houses but those were empty and by the looks of it, they already went through those houses too. Beau was moving around with difficulties as she was slowly limping about and the sun was now high in the sky. She walked aimlessly and discretely in the woods before stopping dead in her track as she saw one of the scavengers smoking a cigarette outside of an old wooden shack. It was the black guy; Reece and he was holding her gun in his hand. Her heart was beating like crazy and she felt her hands get wet with adrenaline and stress. She hid herself behind a large tree and closed her eyes so she could get her heartbeats under control. Her throat was dry, and she felt like vomiting. She didn’t expect for any of them to be awake, but she would have to improvise. She stealthily walked to the wooden shack from an angle where he could not see her and quietly looked through the small wooden window. She thanked all the gods above as she first saw a very alive and very awake Judith sat down on the dusty floor of the shack, she seemed to play with a small wooden stick. Beau looked up and Roosevelt was sat on an old wooden cabinet that was surrounded by dust and old candles. Roosevelt seemed to have noticed her as he looked up at her, excited and waved his paw to her, happily. Beau hurriedly put a shaky finger to her chapped lips in order to shush him as she had a small heart attack, thinking one of the scavengers could have seen it and gave up her position. Her sniper was set near her bear backpack, muzzle to the floor and resting against the wall. Her heart jumped slightly when she noticed the blonde-woman, Tammie, sleeping on an old and dusty sofa, a few meters away from Judith. 

She held her knife tightly, her hands dripping wet as she swallowed thickly, and she seriously thought she was going to barf all over the place. She noticed two medium size red bottles of propane connected to the small wooden trailer and she thought this was actually a good day. She suddenly heard a wooden stick cracking under the weight of someone’s step and she crouched down, slowly and quietly coming to another side of the shack. Reece had thrown the rest of his cigarette and had stepped on it. As soon as he turned around to go back inside the shack, Beau hurried up behind him discreetly and went to cut his throat as quickly as she could. She did not think, she acted on pure and basic instinct and she was shaking with adrenaline, her eyes were wide and glossy, her throat dry, and her heart was beating loud and fast. She clumsily put her hand to his mouth to keep him quiet as she plunged the knife into his throat and she was surprised to find it difficult as the knife did not slide through his throat like butter but she had to use strength and even use her body weight to cut it. Reece was taken by surprised and despite the knife stuck in his throat, he tried to throw Beau to the ground as she was clamped on his back with the strength of adrenaline, helplessness and craziness. He still tried to scream and somehow alert his people, but it sounded more like a gurgle as blood spurted from his neck grotesquely. Beau did not stop from sliding the knife deeper and deeper in his throat as she could feel hot and thick blood covering her hands; she carried on until Reece’s knees hit the ground and she almost had to keep him from falling to the floor. Once Reece’s dead body finally fell limped to the floor, Beau removed the knife from his throat with difficulties and stuck the knife in his skull. Her hands were shaking severely as adrenaline was running through her. The cut had been so violent and so deep that half of his neck was opened, and Beau looked at it and then at her hands with a disturbing coldness. She dropped the knife that fell to the ground in a matte noise and she picked up her .45 that was still in Reece’s hand. She had to physically open his fingers one by one to get her gun out of his grasp. Beau was in an altered state and her ears were ringing; each step she took felt like a different person was in charge of her body. She quietly stepped inside the wooden shack that was as big as a trailer and Judith made a curious hiccup sound that startled Beau, making her jump and point the gun at the baby. It felt like the world was swaying and heaving and Beau kept the gun pointed at Judith for a whole minute or two. She could see Roosevelt waving his little arm at her again from the corner of her eye and when she looked up at him, he was pointing at something next to her.   
As she swirled around on her feet, she looked down to where Roosevelt was pointing at to see the long-haired guy that spared her life; he was sleeping on the floor in one corner, his head not too far from the sofa where the girl was sleeping on. She took one step towards him, making the wooden floor creaked underneath her weight and she stopped dead in her track, holding her breath. As she looked down, Beau noticed a bottle of Jack Daniels and one of her opioids pill bottles scattered on the wooden floor and she knew they had a little bit of a party before going to bed.   
Without any more ceremony, she pointed her .45 at the long-haired guy on the floor and took a clear shot at his head; his brain scattering all over the wall behind him. The shot rang loudly against the wall of the shack, making Judith cry and waking up the blonde-hair girl. Judith’s loud cries were making Beau frown as the sound seemed much higher to her than normal. Tammie woke up with a start and scanned the room before screaming loudly when she set her eyes on the dead guy. She stood up abruptly, jaw locked as she was ready to pounce on Beau. She screamed something but Beau could not hear it as the ringing sound and Judith’s cries were too overwhelming. Before she could try anything, Beau shot her in the leg and Tammie fell to the ground screaming. In her altered state, Beau had almost forgotten about the dead roaming the earth, but a few movements caught her attention in her peripheral vision. She could see maybe three or four walkers coming their way already through the window, and she knew a lot more of them were going to come here as the gun shot, Judith’s cries and Tammie’s loud screaming was attracting them.   
Beau knew she had to be quick if she did not want to be surrounded herself. She quickly walked to Tammie and kicked her hard in the head, they both heard a sinister cracking noise and Beau could see blood spurting from the blonde-haired girl’s nose. She screamed even louder, and Beau kicked her again and again until she was almost passed out. When she looked up through the small window, she could see a dozen of walkers coming towards the shack, so she hurriedly crouched down to pick up her pill bottle and her Baseball that was equally on the floor. She stood up and quickly grabbed Roosevelt and opened him so she could put her things in. She then grabbed her sniper and from the weight of it, she knew it was loaded, they hadn’t used it; she threw it rapidly on her back followed by Roosevelt. She made her way to the hob and turned on the stoves at full power and she could hear the quiet sound of propane gas escaping the opened valves. She turned around and scanned the room hastily as Tammie was moaning and insulting her in a broken voice, on the floor. Beau noticed her automatic knife which was opened and stuck in the wooden wall of the shack; she took it back before she flicked opened her Zippo and lit it. She left it opened and lit on a dusty and messy little table in the corner of the trailer. Beau finally picked up a very distressed Judith that was continuously crying and made her way out.   
She was taken by surprised when a walker appeared in front of her, almost grabbing her but she shot it dead before it could. She left the door ajar as the blonde-haired girl was screaming profanities at her. As over a dozen walkers were coming their way, she held Judith close to her, pressing her head to her chest, hoping to muffle her screams as she ran aimlessly towards the woods and away from the shack as quickly as possible, despite her state.

She was covered in sweat and blood, the weight of her gear and Judith was slowing her down and making it worse on her broken ribs but she power ran through the woods, her hands shaking severely as adrenaline was giving her the strength to carry on. She was wheezing, all she could hear now was her heartbeats and her laborious breathing. She clumsily gunned down a few walkers that came to close to her as she counted the seconds in her head, waiting for the explosion with impatience.   
Maybe she should have killed the bitch, what if she survived? 

WHOMP 

The sound was loud and echoing through the woods and Beau momentarily stopped breathing.   
As she managed to reach the rail track back, she looked up to see a huge mushroom cloud of dark smoke in the sky and she couldn’t stop herself from admiring it. She was still wheezing loudly, her mouth slightly agape as she looked up the sky, amazed and she seemed to be lost again in her world; she couldn’t even hear Judith’s cries anymore. Her ears were not ringing anymore, it was more like a static sound.

“Beau. -A feminine voice called out; incredibility was palpable in the way Beau’s name had been called. -Beau, is that you? Oh my god! Are you hurt? What happened to you?” 

Beau could not seem to hear anything, she seemed completely gone. Nor was she aware of the people around her. How long had she been standing here? The dark smoke was now dissipated. 

“Beau!” A strong masculine voice called out this time and Tyreese waved his hand in front of her face, but Beau was unresponsive. 

“Oh my god, she has Judith!” Carol exclaimed, shocked painted all over her face as she tried to take Judith in her arms, away from Beau. This seemed to wake Beau from her weird torpor as Beau lifted her gun instinctively to Carol’s face.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

“Beau.”

“Beau.”

“Beau.”

“Beau.”

“Beau.”

The words were echoing in her head; it sounded like it was coming all around her and she squinted and frowned like she was trying to refocus. Her world was swaying and heaving again; she could barely make out the person in front of her.

“Beau, it’s me. Carol.” She said carefully as she put her hands in the air, leaving Judith in Beau’s arms.

Beau sill had her .45 pointed at Carol’s face as she still squinted her eyes as to see her better. Carol’s voice was still echoing in her head and she tried hard to shake herself out of this weird torpor.

Tyreese approached Beau cautiously as to disarm her, but Carol shook her head quietly at him. Beau saw the exchanged and she twitched nervously before pointing the gun towards Tyreese. Tyreese looked scared and he lifted both his hands up in the air in peace.

“Beau.” Carol called out carefully so she would get Beau’s attention back on her. She wished Daryl would be around right now more than ever, so he could get Beau back to reality.

“Beau, what happened to you? Whose blood is this?” Carol asked quietly as she looked at the blood covering Beau’s hands and entire outfit.

Beau turned towards Carol once again as she tried to make out what she was saying. Her world was still shifting, and she frowned as she studied the woman in front of her.  
She slowly put her gun down.

“Carol.” She called out confused.

“Yes, it’s me. Everything’s okay, we’re together now. -Carol answered with a reassuring voice, trying to appease her. -Are you on your own since the prison?”

“With Judith.” She said with a hoarse voice and Carol could hear the uncertainty in her voice like she still was not sure whether Carol was actually standing there.

Beau coughed and the ringing in her ears was slowly fading away as she came back to her senses; a frown drawn between her eyebrows as she still seemed confused.

“Let me take her.” Tyreese said as he slowly reached for Judith. Beau hesitated for a second before letting him take the baby from her.

“Do you know where the others are?” Beau asked.

“No, it’s just us.” Tyreese answered as he rocked Judith.

“We think that they might have followed the trail to Terminus. We have to try. -Carol said as she looked afar, along the rail track. -We’re not far, we should be able to make it in an hour or two. Can you walk?”

Beau nodded.

Carol observed her as she tried to guess what had happened to her, but she finally nodded her understanding.

“Let’s not waste anymore time then.” Carol concluded before taking the lead.

It took them a little while longer than what Carol thought as Beau struggled to walk efficiently; she was still wheezing from the efforts and the pain. They heard gunshots as they hid in the edge of the woods while a horde of walkers were going towards Terminus.

“It can’t be good. Do you think Terminus is under attack?” Tyreese asked Carol once the horde had passed through.

“Or maybe they’re attacking someone. Either way, we can’t just walk to the gates, it’s too risky. We don’t know who they are and what to expect. We’ll cut through the woods and check the place first.” Carol answered.

“Do we really have to check it out?” Tyreese asked.

“Yes, we do. Our people could be in there.”

As instructed by Carol, they cut through the woods and as they got deeper into the wilderness, they could hear a voice belonging to a young man talking on a walkie as they approached a wooden cabin. The young man had a cap and was kneeing on the floor, pulling fireworks outside of a backpack.

“…told you that chick with the sword looked like trouble. -He laughed- You’re gonna slit the throat of that cowboy kid.”

Click.

Carol pointed the muzzle of her handgun to the back of his head.

“Keep your finger off the walkie.” She ordered.

“Everything’s okay, we have a sanctuary. You people can join, you’d be safe there.” The young man preached.

“Shut up. We’re friends with the chick with the sword and the kid. Who else is in there?”

“Just the black chick and the kid, that’s it.”

“I don’t believe you. How many people is there in Terminus?”

“A lot. Way too many for you to try anything.”

“We’ll see about that. I’m going to take those fireworks of yours away, now. We wouldn’t want that horde of walkers to be deviated from Terminus, would we?” Carol answered coldly.

“You’re crazy if you think you can break into this place and get your people out, lady. They’re already dead and you’re going to die too.”

POP

Carol did not hesitate and shot the young man in the back of the head; a clean shot that rang loudly through the woods. His brain and blood spurted onto the ground, and his body fell on the floor in a matte sound. Shocked was written all over Tyreese’s face as he pressed protectively Judith onto his chest and somehow tried to cover her ears to protect her from the loud sound. Beau did not even react, and her face was emotionless as she felt numb. She looked at the dead body with a blanked stare.

“Did you really need to do this?” Tyreese asked Carol with a frown on his face.

“You heard him like me; they’ve got our people and they’re going to kill them. That guy would have killed us without any hesitation. It’s better like that. Beau. -She called out, after a few seconds. -You’re a great sniper and I’m going to need you. Tyreese, do you mind staying behind with Judith? Someone needs to stay with her and protect her.”

“Of course, you know that’s what works best for me. -Tyreese agreed. -But how are you going to pull this off? They seemed to have lots of people there and weapons.”

“Beau will have to create some sort of distraction and kill as many people as possible while I sneak in and look for them. That’s the only way.”

Beau nodded and picked up the fireworks with difficulties as she struggled to bend down. After they agreed on a plan, Tyreese locked himself safely with Judith in the wooden cabin as Carol and Beau walked together towards the compound. They walked in silence, focused on the task ahead and Beau dropped the backpack full of fireworks on the fences once they got to the compound. Beau set her sniper on the tripod as she laid on the ground, her cheek to the cheek piece and studied the place while Carol was doing the same, using goggles.

“See that propane tank? That’s our distraction.” Carol said.

“I’m on it.” Beau answered.

“I’ll need you to cover me as I get inside and look for them. Kill every living and dead, don’t hesitate.”

“I won’t.”

Before Carol even left, Beau took a shot at the propane tank and a thick white cloud of gas escaped it rapidly. She put one of the fireworks inside the barrel of her sniper and lit it before shooting it to the propane tank. The explosion was huge and loud, the sound ringing deafeningly as gunshots and screamed could be heard coming from Terminus. The explosion killed multiple people and walkers and it created a vast panic, giving Carol the distraction she had wanted to sneak inside the compound.  
Rapidly, Beau looked for Carol through the eye piece of her sniper and she was impressed to see that Carol had already managed to get in, running fast and efficiently through the compound, killing every living or dead on her way. As instructed, Beau killed as many people and walkers as she could and after sometimes, she recognized Rick and Daryl coming out of a building. Her heart stomped harder as she looked at Daryl killing people around him and running towards the gates. She tried to shoot as many persons and walkers that came too close to her people as they reached the gates and managed to escape.

She stayed a little while longer on the floor, even though her people had left the compound, so she could shoot any survivors. She made sure no one had followed them into the woods and once she was satisfied, she threw her sniper on her back, followed by Roosevelt before going to meet them.

As she approached the little group, she could hear talk and she stopped a few meters away as she saw Rick hugging Carol. The whole group was there, and Beau seriously felt like crying out of relief. Those few days on the road had been tough, keeping Judith alive and safe while not knowing if she ever going to see any of them alive had took a toll on her. Also, she felt broken and she knew she looked like one of those walkers.

“Daryl. -Carol grabbed Daryl’s hands gently into hers. -Beau is here too but you have to be prepared, she isn’t looking great. -As soon as she said that, Beau could see excitement followed by worry and anger on Daryl’s face. -She was alone with Judith; I think she was attacked when she was on the road.”

“Judith? Is she okay?” Rick asked, worry painted all over his face, before Daryl could say anything.

“Judith’s fine; Tyreese too.” Carol added looking at Sasha.

They all exclaimed happily, and Beau decided to show up to them. The noise of a broken twig snapped their heads towards Beau.

They all stared at her for a second; their mouths slightly agape as they silently studied the damages, from her black eye to her split lips, her blood injected eye to her wrapped up hand. Beau was also covered in dark dried blood from head to toe and was still wheezing.

“You should see the other guy.” She finally said to break the ice, but none of them smiled.

Daryl hurriedly stepped towards her and hugged her tightly, lifting her a good couple of inches above the ground, making Beau wince. He dropped her immediately back to the floor before studying her cautiously.

“I’m good -She said quietly. -I’m unkillable.” She added playfully but again, he did not even smile. His eyes scanned her body almost methodically and he grabbed the bottom of her large t-shirt in order to lift it up. He slowly unveiled the sizeable bruised on her abdomen and her crooked ribs. Beau could see Daryl’s face expression changed in a matter of second as he locked his jaw in anger. Beau could tell he was furious; Daryl felt like screaming and breaking things as he checked her injuries. He exhaled through the nose as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Are they dead?” Daryl asked with his familiar gruff and low voice.

Beau snorted mockingly.

“Did you think I would let them walk? ‘Course, they dead.”

His eyes met hers and she could tell he was looking for the truth; he wanted to make sure she wasn’t lying to appease him. When he found what he wanted, he nodded at her and his face fell sadly; the anger was gone, and it was replaced by sadness. He caressed her face tenderly and Beau nuzzled it before resting her forehead on his chest, his whole body was enveloping hers, hiding her from the rest of the group as he had his back to them.  
The moment was somewhat intimate, and no one dared to make a sound as they looked at the odd couple. Beau felt him caress and play with her short-buzzed hair before inhaling deeply into the top of her head, and carefully kissing her on the lips. The kiss was chaste and gentle, like he was scared to hurt her.

Rick slowly came into view and Daryl stepped aside as to let him get to Beau. Rick studied Beau’s face and body for a second or two and Beau was surprised to see him lock his jaw in anger too. Their eyes met and Beau could tell something was different in Rick’s eyes; his stare was cold as ice and it hid something colder, crazier, bolder, more lethal than before.

“Who?” Rick growled lowly and he tilted his head towards her.

“Some scavengers.” Beau shrugged.

“You sure they’re all gone?”

“Aye, I’m sure. I went full Norman Bates on them, ight.”

He nodded as he fought a smirk before taking her in his arms.

“Watch out.” Daryl said quietly to Rick so he wouldn’t crush his girl.

“We should go.” Carol intervened.

They all walked back to the wooden cabin and Rick and Carl ran to Tyreese and Judith. Rick’s eyes were red with tears as he hugged the baby tightly, Carl by his side. Sasha ran to Tyreese and hugged him too. Rick came to Beau and gripped her shoulder firmly and their eyes met.

“Thank you.” He said, referring to Judith.

“Ain’t nothing.” She mumbled back.

“It’s everything.”

“She was a good partner in crime.” She said playfully and this time a few members of the group smiled too.

Their little group was once again back together on the road; Beau, Carol and Tyreese were introduced to new faces: Abraham, Eugene, Rosita and Tara. They walked through the woods for miles and Beau was struggling to keep up with the rest of the group as she was closing their march. Her injuries were slowing her down, and everyone could hear her wheezing loudly. A few of them kept looking back at her worryingly, almost to check if she was going to make it.

Daryl had insisted to take her gears off of her multiple times, but she kept refusing.

“Okay, I had enough. -Daryl said loudly as he stepped in front of Beau. The group slowed down to a stop as they looked at them. -Gimme yer shit.” He added as he motioned two fingers towards her.

“I said I’m good.” She said breathless, before trying to walk past him.

“I ain’t askin’; ya got a bunch of broken ribs and that wheezing don’t sound good.” Daryl argued.

Everybody could see that Beau was going to argue but before she could even open her mouth, Rick stepped towards them.

“He’s right. Give him your gear.” Rick ordered, implacable.

Beau turned towards him with a grimace on her face, the beads of sweat falling down on her face. She was exhausted and she wiped the sweat off with her forearm before sighing, defeated. The heat was unbearable, and her injuries were killing her. She finally nodded and removed Roosevelt from her back, followed by her sniper. Daryl grabbed the sniper and threw it on his own back before extending his arm towards the bear backpack.

She laughed quietly.

“As much as I’d like to see your redneck ass sporting a bear backpack, he stays with me.” She said before throwing Roosevelt back on her back.

Daryl ignored her as he stepped closer to her, with his hand open as to say: ‘give it to me’.

She looked at him and she could tell he was not going to take ‘no’ for an answer; she turned towards Rick who sported the same determined look. She looked around and they were all waiting impatiently for her to give her bear backpack to Daryl so they could keep walking. She felt like a petulant child who slowed down the group for a whim.

Who the fuck does those fuckers think they are? She thought angrily and took an aggressive step towards Daryl, her back straighten and her head tilted upwards. Despite her injuries and the pain in her abdomen, she puffed her chest, daringly, like she was ready for a fight and Daryl snorted mockingly.

“Whatcha gonna do? Take me on? No offense, kiddo, but ya look like ya got ran over by a truck a couple ‘times.”

He shook his head disapprovingly before putting two fingers on her chest and carefully pushing her backward; his movement was deliberately slow and gentle but somewhat insulting, like he was showing off to her how easy it would be for him to take her on. Beau hated how it made her feel weak and she felt somehow mocked, making her furious. The slight push that Daryl had gave her was actually enough to make her take a step back. She grinded her teeth and took a step towards him again but he simply ignored her, like she was not a threat and he placed his hand on one of the straps of her bear backpack. That movement seemed to unleash something in Beau, and she pushed Daryl away from her with both hands. The push was enough for Daryl to back off, making him frown. At the same time, Carol walked to Rick and grabbed his arm as she leaned towards him to talk to him.

“Rick, when I found her, Beau wasn’t rational. She was unpredictable.” Carol whispered and Rick nodded before he stepped towards Beau.

Before he could reach her, Rosita sighed loudly, clearly annoyed by this situation and she power walked to Beau before grabbing roughly the backpack by the strap and tried to pull it off from Beau.

“No!” Daryl and Rick shouted at the same time loudly, dumbfounding the group as Rick ran towards Beau who in a split second, had pointed her .45 to Rosita’s head. Rosita did not expect such reaction and she stood there, shocked painted all over her face as Abraham automatically pointed his rifle at Beau.

Daryl rapidly swirled on himself, his back to Beau in order to shield her from Abraham’s rifle and at the same time, he lifted his crossbow to Abraham, his eye focused through the eyepiece and his finger on the trigger, ready to shoot if necessary.

“Put yer gun down.” Daryl growled lowly, towards Abraham.

“No.” Abraham answered through his teeth, his ton implacable.

“Everybody! Stop!” Rick shouted as he positioned himself in the middle of the altercation, his arms open in peace as to appease them.

By now, Beau was sweating prominently, and her eyes were once again wide and glossy as she kept her gun to Rosita.

“Nobody’s taking the fucking bear! Did I make myself clear?” Beau shouted loudly and she felt like all eyes were on her. Rick took a step towards her and Beau pointed the gun on him, making him stop in his track.

“It’s all good, Beau. Nobody is going to take the bear from you. You keep him.” Rick said cautiously to appease her.

Beau frowned as she took a look towards Rosita, not completely convinced that she wouldn’t try to take him again. Was that a trick? Was he reassuring her so she would put her gun down and he could get that Mexican bitch to take Roosevelt from her? She thought, forgetting why, in the first place, they had wanted to take her backpack in the first place.

Daryl still had his crossbow on Abraham and Abraham still had his rifle on Daryl.

“Step aside, pal.” Abraham said.

“We ain’t pal.” Daryl answered lowly.

“I’ll shoot you if I have to.”

“Nobody is shooting anyone.” Rick claimed loudly, authority sparkling from his voice.

“We don’t have time for this. It’s getting dark and we need to find shelter for the night.” Maggie intervened.

Rick stepped in front of Beau, pushing aside Rosita so Beau couldn’t see her anymore.

“Put the gun down, Beau. We were only looking after you. You can keep the backpack.” He said slowly as their eyes met.

“If she tries again…” Beau said quietly, without finishing her sentence, the threat obvious.

Beau finally put her gun down and slide it at the back of her shorts. Rosita crossed her arms on her chest, annoyed by the situation and everyone can read incredibility on her face. Rick ordered her to walk ahead of the group and Abraham put his rifle down before joining Rosita at the front of the group. Little by little, the group started to walk again like nothing happen, leaving Daryl, Rick, Carol and Beau at the back of the group.

“We’re going to talk about this.” Rick said firmly to Beau and she nodded her understanding.

Rick went to take the lead of the group, followed by Carol, leaving Daryl and Beau in an awkward silence. Suddenly, Beau felt stupid like she knew she overreacted, and Daryl’s silence was not helping her feel better. He looked at her, almost disappointed and he even turned around and was about to start walking ahead of her, but Beau stopped him by grabbing his arm.

“I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t trust you with the bear, I…” She mumbled but Daryl cut her off.

“What? -He asked confused. -Ya think I’m pissed off ‘cause of the damn bear.” Daryl looked incredulous.

Beau looked at him with a frown.

“Goddamnit Beau. ‘m not upset ‘cause ya don’t trust me with the bear; ‘m upset ‘cause ya could’ve kill someone or get yerself shot. Do ya realise dat?” He said to her as he tried to meet her eyes. Beau felt like she was being scolded like a little child; she swallowed thickly.

“I’m sorry, sometimes I can’t think, I’m too angry. I can get so crazy.” She said quietly as she looked down.

He sighed loudly before stepping towards her and taking her chin in his hand, lifting her head up.

“Ya need to learn to control yerself. I don’t want ya getting’ hurt ‘cause ya loose yer shit fer none important, ight.”

Beau sniffled loudly before scratching her nose with the back of her hand, but she kept her chin in Daryl’s fingers.

“Do you still love me?” She asked sadly.

“What? What the hell are ya on about again? ‘course, I still love ya. Shit, have ya got any idea how I feel about ya? Whatchu mean fer me? How I was ready to shoot that ginger Action Man?” He claimed as he shook his head, surpassed.

Beau put both her opened palms to his chest as she gently pushed him onto the nearest tree. Daryl let her manhandle him as he now leaned against the tree, Beau standing in between his opened legs. She leaned against him, their bodies touching as she nearly put all her weight on him. She had to tip toe to reach his mouth and kiss him. The kiss is chaste and somehow shy before Beau licked his bottom lip to deepen the kiss, but before she can, Daryl broke the kiss.

They looked at each other and Daryl smiled, amused, when he noticed the frown on Beau’s face. He knew that his amused smile would rile her up and as expected, she plunged on his lips again but this time more forcefully. He avoided the kiss by turning his face to the side; their eyes met, and he lifted a hand to caress her cheek and traced the deep cut on her lips with his thumb. Beau was always surprised to feel how soft and cautious he could be despite him having such large and rough hands.

Beau let him study her beat up face and he exhaled deeply through the nose and came to rest his forehead on hers. They stayed like that for a little while, not particularly worried about their little group already gone, as they knew Daryl would be able to track them down easily. Daryl came to play with Beau’s buzzcut, and she let escaped a little laugh.

“Do you like it?” She asked, looking back at him.

“Yeah, ya look pretty badass like that. I wouldn’t wanna mess with ya.” He said with a smirk.

“Is that right?” She asked playfully before trying to kiss him again.

Once again, he dodged the kiss and Beau opened her automatic knife out.

Click.

Daryl frowned as he looked at the blade. She placed the blade on his throat, and she could see him swallowing thickly.

“Beau, what are ya doin’?” He asked quietly, unsure of what was going on.

“You said you didn’t wanna mess with me. Kiss me.”

He laughed a quiet laugh. She was crazy, completely insane; he thought.

“I don’t wanna hurt ya. Ya look pretty messed up and I don’t wanna make it worse.” He said, both his hands holding her waist firmly, just above the hips.

“Do as I say. And don’t try anything, Dixon.” She ordered very seriously as she kept the blade on his throat.

He sighed and he leaned into her to kiss her. He was very cautious with the kiss still, but he finally deepened the kiss, his tongue meeting hers. Beau fought for domination, but Daryl let her win easily and Beau was in complete control of the kiss. She slid her leg between his and playfully rubbed her knee against his crotch, making him groan. He leaned more onto her to try and further the friction between them, but Beau pushed the blade slightly more onto his throat by accident as she lost herself in his touch. Daryl winced quietly when the blade started to cut the skin, making him back off.

“Babe be careful. I trust ya.” He said quietly and submissively.

Beau’s mouth fell slightly agape for a second as she couldn’t believe Daryl let her dominate him completely. She shuffled on her feet as she grew excited by the situation. She swallowed thickly and she came to caress Daryl’s chest and slowly sliding down to his black leather belt, with her free hand, keeping the blade to his throat. His black jeans were vaguely hanging low on his hips; Beau palmed his crotch, on top of his jeans and he let escape a quiet moan; she started to make slow little circle with her palm, and she could feel his bulge forming beneath her hand. They both breathed heavily, and Beau popped opened the button of his jeans before sliding her hand inside it. He was already hard, and she took his erection in her hand, before jerking him off. She moved back and forth with her hand firmly around his cock, and she slid her thumb over his tip, playing with it, making him groan and moan.

She shuffled on her feet again and squeezed her thighs as she felt herself getting wet. She bit her lip as she calculated the risks of them getting caught by a member of the group, if they started to fuck here and there.

“Do you think we could…” She started asking.

“Don’t even think about it. I ain’t takin’ ya in the open like that, too risky.” He cut her off, out of breath.

She took her hand out of his jeans and took the blade away from his throat.  
He seemed shocked for a second.

“Shit, Beau. Ya can’t leave me like that.” He claimed, frustrated as his erection was visible through his jeans.

“Well, I don’t get it, you don’t get it. “

“What if Rick comes to get us? What about the walkers? It’s too dangerous outside like that.”

“Come on, when are we gonna be able to be alone again? Looks like we’ll be on the road for a while. I missed you so fucking much.” She said as she bit her lips.

“Ya really hurt, sweetheart. I don’t wanna take the risk to make it worse.” He said sadly, looking down.

Beau sighed after a second or two and gave in as she kissed him harder than before and Daryl could feel her frustration through the kiss. She grabbed his harden cock again and started jerking him off. Her automatic knife was back inside her short’s pocket and she slid a hand on his neck, pushing him towards her as they kissed sloppily. Daryl groaned in the kiss before grabbing her hand, making her stop. They were both out of breath and Daryl scanned the woods cautiously.

“Okay, we gotta be quick and quiet, ight. Think ya can managed that?” He asked her quietly.

She nodded vigorously as she looked at him with a mix of adoration and curiosity. That look made him laugh quietly as he manhandled her, placing her hands to the trees as he placed himself behind her. Her back was against his chest as they both stood facing the tree. He placed his hands carefully on her waist and he kissed her neck multiple times as he got his cock out of his jeans and pulled down Beau’s shorts on her thighs. He slid one finger inside her as to prepare her and he could already feel her squeeze around him. He pressed his hand to her back to bend her over more and placed his cock at her entrance.

“Does it hurt like that?” He asked, worried that the position would be too much on her ribs.

“No, it’s fine. Hurry up.” She whispered.

He penetrated her, deep and slow and both their breathing became laborious.

“Fuck, baby, ya feel so good.” He said, his voice strained under the efforts.

Daryl carried on his thrusts until he could feel her squeeze him; she moaned quietly, and her hand came to grab his thigh, gripping it hard as she came around him. He pulled out and carried on jerking himself off, before Beau slapped his hand away and replaced it with hers. He came inside her palm and he grabbed the bandana from his back pocket so she could clean herself up. He buttoned up his jeans as she replaced Roosevelt on her back.

“Ya’ll be the death of me.” He sighed and she giggled at that before placing a kiss on his lips.

“I didn’t know you liked having a knife to your throat that much.”

“Ya sure liked to have me at yer mercy.”

“Who’s daddy now, uh?” She asked cockily.

He laughed genuinely at that and he was surprised to feel her hand sliding in his as they walked towards their group.

“Ya’ll always gonna be ma baby girl, though.” He said, knowing this would rile her up.

“Shut up! -She claimed loudly as she punched him in the stomach. -Don’t be sick.”

They walked for a while longer when they suddenly heard a loud scream; they stopped dead in their track and looked at each other, before running towards the sound.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Daryl and Beau managed to find their group rather easily; they followed the shouts and commotion’s sounds. They finally reached their people and they all looked slightly out of breath as a dozen of walkers were motionless on the floor. The sound of their rapid steps made their group turned their gaze towards them, and Rick gave them a wryly look. Beau and Daryl ignored it and turned their attention to the priest that was standing in front of them.   
The priest did not seem dangerous, maybe a bit creepy according to Beau but she was not particularly worried that he could be a threat. While Rick was questioning the priest, who turned out to be called Gabriel; Beau was studying Rosita closely, she could easily take the bitch out, but she would have to be careful of Abraham. The man was tall and huge; he was military and hence, knew how to fight. Rosita felt Beau’s stare and she turned towards her, silently defying her to do or say something but Beau was too lost in her own thoughts to noticed it.   
Daryl frowned watching Beau’s behavior and he delicately, not to startle the tomboy, put his hands over her eyes, covering them. The momentarily loss of eye contact with Rosita pulled her out of her dark thoughts and brought her back to reality. The voices and sounds surrounding her, becoming much clearer. 

“You said you got a church? Where?” Rick asked, suspicious as he tilted his head nervously to the priest. 

Beau could tell Rick changed; he was cautious, and he seemed to have lost faith in people and humanity, all together. He did not seem like he was the good guy anymore. He wouldn’t take any chances anymore. 

When Maggie and Glenn saw Rick’s hesitations, they insisted they take a look at the church, to check if it was real, at least. Also, it was slowly getting dark and they needed some shelter for the night. Rick locked his jaw and threw a few threats at Gabriel before they walked towards the church. Rick was anxious and he quietly gave the orders for everyone to keep their weapons close and be ready to kill anything that moves if necessary. 

Turned out, Gabriel did not lie to them, and they found an empty church. After checking thoroughly for any traces of anything suspicious, they deemed the church safe enough to stay and Maggie and Glenn found a reserve full of food in Gabriel’s office. They decided to set camp inside the church in order to get some rest; Rick went around a few times with Abraham to check the barricades around the church as Gabriel went to get the necessary amount of tin canned food for the whole group, supervised closely by Michonne.   
Once the sun went down, they all gathered inside the church, as they sat and ate their food. The atmosphere was serene and joyful as they were all happy and relieved to be back together and to have found food and a safe place to rest for the next few days.   
They were all catching up with each other while keeping the noise down as much as possible. As they were finishing their food, Abraham stood up in front of the group to make a speech. He claimed Eugene was a scientist that could potentially save humanity by developing some sort of cure and that they should all go to Washington DC. They needed to go to CDC so Eugene could gather with other scientists and work on a cure. Also, it was very much possible that other survivors were there, food, shelters and weapons too. Beau could feel herself getting more and more anxious with each minute that her group spent discussing the idea of going to Washington. She kept her eyes on Rick as he made up his mind. 

“I’m in; we’re in.” He said and everyone cheered happily. 

Beau’s heart beat fast and strong and her face lost its colors as his answer felt like a condemnation. She suddenly felt sick like she was about to puke, and she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Washington was up north, the opposite direction from Florida. This was not her plan and she thought Rick knew that. All along, Beau’s intentions were to go back to Florida in the hope to walk across her twin brother on the way.   
Beau and Daryl were sat on the floor, facing each other, their legs touching, and Daryl came to nudge Beau’s leg with his foot as to get her attention. Beau looked up to him and she shook her head unconsciously; she could not accept that. 

“That’s bullshit, man.” She mumbled as she stood up with difficulty. She did not talk loudly but everyone seemed to have heard her as they froze.   
The joyful atmosphere had suddenly shift and turned cold. A few of them were sporting a frown, including Daryl, Rick and Michonne; the silence fell on them as Beau picked up her bear backpack and made her way to exit the church. 

Rosita sighed loudly as she rolled her eyes and mumbled something unclearly. Rick quietly passed Judith to Tyreese as he stood up too, his eyes not leaving Beau’s back.

“What was that?” Abraham asked, his voice loud and clear, echoing inside the church. There was something incredibly military in his voice, that called respect and obedience.   
Beau stopped dead in her track, and she could already feel her heartrate increase with anger; she did not like his tone at all.   
She turned around slowly and she met Abraham’s eyes. He was standing to his full height, with his arms crossed on his chest; he was defying her, and Beau felt herself boil. 

God, she wanted to kill him and his bitch. 

“You’re talking to me?” She asked with a fake surprised tone and she opened her arms in a confuse behavior. 

“Yeah, I’m talking to you.” Abraham answered firmly and Rick lifted a hand towards him in order to keep from saying anything more. 

Beau smirked cockily at Abraham when he actually obeyed Rick. Daryl was standing up too as he hoovered the scene, ready to take Beau’s defense at any moment. 

“Let’s talk. -Rick hissed, with his jaw locked as he walked towards Beau. -Alone.” He added firmly towards Daryl when he walked past him. 

“There is no way.” Daryl said as he stepped towards the exit of the church too.

“I mean it, Daryl.” Rick said firmly, staring him down. 

Beau nodded at Daryl, making him sighed. He shook his head slightly, disapprovingly but turned around, nonetheless. He got a cigarette out of his pocket and walked to Gabriel’s office to isolate himself as Rick and Beau walked outside the church.   
The darkness and freshness of the night enveloped them completely as the only lights available were coming from the church, piercing thought the cracks of the church’s barricades.   
The only sounds they could hear were the quiet breeze brushing through the leaves, the cracks of twigs and their own breathing.   
Rick sighed loudly and he pinched the bridge of his nose for a whole minute. He finally opened his eyes and met Beau’s arctic blue ones. She was holding onto the straps of her backpack and she stood half a meter away from him, her stance was strong, and her legs were slightly spread. 

“I know, that’s not what you wanted.” Rick started but Beau cut him off with a scoff. 

“Dude, the plan was to go towards Florida. Why not going to Canada, while you’re at it?” She said sarcastically with her arms opened, in a surpassed fashion. 

“The only plan we ever had was to survive. If there is a chance, even the slightest, for a cure or a better, safer life for Carl and Judith, we have to take it.” Rick said firmly while keeping the noise to a minimum. 

She sighed and she looked away into the woods before looking back at him. 

“You’re ready to follow some bozos up north because that nerd said there is some magical cure he can cooked up. It’s bullshit, you know it is.” She said quietly. 

“Yeah, I don’t believe it either. But, he’s right when he sayin’ there might be shelters and food in Washington. When you think about it, CDC is probably the last place standing.” He admitted quietly.

“Shit. -She whispered, more to herself as she passed her hand on her buzzcut. She looked down and she stepped away from him. -I can’t.” She shook her head disapprovingly before covering her face with both her hands.

Accepting to go to Washington with them felt like betrayal to her. Like she was abandoning her brother or any chances to see him again. Could she walk out of them? Could she end up on the streets by herself again? Would she even survive it? Would she ever find her brother? And what about Daryl?   
Rick came next to her, only a few inches away and he put both his hands on her shoulders, bringing her back to reality. 

“I’m not letting you walk.” Rick claimed with a gruff and low voice, and their eyes met when she dropped her hands down. 

She sighed, looking defeatedly at his shoes.

“I’m not leaving you.” She admitted in a whisper, still looking down.

He squeezed her shoulders.

“We’ll still look for him, even in DC. If your brother tried to go to Atlanta as soon as things went down, there is a huge chance the army diverted him to Washington as most military camps were located there.” Rick said firmly and Beau nodded. 

“We’re good?” Rick asked after removing his hands from her shoulders. 

“Yeah, we good.” She nodded.

“Let’s go back inside before Daryl loses it. -Rick said with a smile and Beau cracked one too. -And, please try not to kill Abraham and Rosita, they’re good people.” 

Beau scoffed.

“Where the hell did you find those people, anyway?” 

“I didn’t. Glenn did.” Rick said with a laugh as they climbed the small wooden stairs to the church. 

They walked back inside the church that was quiet and plunged in dim lights. Everyone was laying down on their makeshift bed and whispering to each other’s. Maggie and Glenn were next to each other’s, Glenn was playing with Maggie’s hair as they talked discretely. Sasha and Tyreese were sat down together, their back laying against the wooden table as Tyreese rocked Judith. They all looked towards Rick and Beau when they heard the creaking wooden door of the church and Rick reassured them saying everything was fine. Daryl power walked to Beau as he chewed nervously on his thumb. He studied her, probably checking for any more injuries or trying to read her. Before he could say anything, Rick confirmed that they were all going to Washington as soon as they were ready and that it was time to get some sleep as they would need their strength to find food and start their journey.   
Michonne was picked to take first watch as they still did not trust the priest, and everyone else went to sleep. Beau and Daryl decided to lay down in a corner of the church, away from the rest. She laid down on her side, facing the wall and Roosevelt while Daryl was spooning her. 

Hours later she was woken up accidently by Daryl who was getting up for his shift. It was the middle of the night and the silence in the church was heavy as everybody was sleeping. Daryl had been woken up by Michonne as he was picked to take second watch during the night. He took his crossbow that was against the wall, muzzle to the ground, before he went to check the barricades around the church.   
Beau was slowly waking up as she scratched her eyes with her fists and sat up. Daryl was now sat up against the wooden table that dominated the whole room and their eyes met. She struggled to get up and she made her way to him. She sat next to him. 

“Did I wake ya, sweetheart?” He whispered with a gruff voice as he looked at her. 

Beau could tell he was tired, and she shook her head ’no’, not to worry him. 

“I couldn’t feel you anymore.” She shrugged, but that simple revelation was unsettling to her. 

“’m here, baby. Ya should go back to sleep. I keep an eye on ya, ight.” He reassured her as he petted her thigh. 

“Let me stay with you, I missed you, Dixon.” She confessed quietly and Daryl leaned in to kiss her lips chastely. 

“Just a bit. I want ya to catch some sleep.” 

“You got some smokes?” She asked him after a few minutes of comfortable silence. 

He nodded to her while he fetched his cigarette’s pack from his front pocket. 

“’s the last one.” He claimed quietly before putting the cigarette between his lips and lit it up. 

He took a drag before extending it to Beau.

“There. -Daryl called out with his gruff voice and she grabbed the cigarette he was offering her. 

She inhaled the smoke deeply before grimacing and petting her ribs carefully. Daryl noticed it and his eyes grew colder. 

“Tell me what happened?” He demanded quietly but his tone was cold. 

She shrugged as she exhaled the smoke slowly before resting her head to the table. They sat next to each other’s, their sides and legs touching. 

“There isn’t much to tell. Some psychos came ‘round, I took two out but there was five of them and only one of me so…” 

Daryl waited for her to carry on, but nothing came. 

“Ya said ya killed them all?” He pushed to get her to talk as he took a look at her.

She took another drag of the cigarette while nodding before giving it back to him. 

She rested her hands on her knees. 

“Aye, I did. They fucked me up real’ good, I passed out. When I woke up, Judith and Roosevelt were gone; they took all my shit too. I couldn’t let them walk. -She sighed and she could feel his eyes on her. -I managed to find them and I did what I had to do. Got Judith and Roosevelt back and then Carol found me. That’s it, that’s the story.” 

He sighed and he crushed the rest of the cigarette on the floor, before flicking it away. He copied her and rested his head against the table too, looking ahead of him. 

“I shoulda been there. I…I looked fer ya, back at the prison but ya were nowhere to be found and the prison was a warzone. ’m sorry…”

Beau could hear the emotion and the sorrow in his voice as it broke slightly, and for a second she thought he was going to cry. She frowned at what he said as she did not expect him to feel guilty nor sorry about her ending up alone after the prison. It was nobody’s fault; everybody got split up. 

“Wow, hold the fuck up, what you sayin’? it ain’t on you, Daryl.” She said, looking back at him. 

“I shoulda been there; yer ma girl. It’s ma job to look after ya, always been since the farm.” He whispered, broken. 

She studied him for a second or two and she could see actual tears in his eyes, shocking her. He sniffled and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. It seemed to take her breath away to see a grown man cry, especially a grown man as tough as Daryl. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She just did not know how to react. 

“Yo, Daryl. -She clumsily said, unsure of what to say or do. She put a hesitant hand on his thigh. -The hell, man? It was completely outta your hands, you know that, right?” She added, quietly. 

He did not answer back but he swallowed thickly. His head was hanging low, his hair hiding his face and Beau knew he was embarrassed to cry in front of her, or to cry at all.

She inhaled deeply through the nose before shuffling around and crouching in between his legs. She held onto his shoulders to keep her balance as he opened his legs slightly more so she could fit in between them. Without any hesitation, his hands came to hold her waist, without squeezing her too much, careful not to hurt her. He still refused to look at her, so she brushed away the hair that was hanging in front of his eyes. 

She sighed when his eyes finally met hers.

“Aye, look. The prison was a shit show, and everybody got split up, no one could’ve done anything about that. I mean, shit, Judith was legit on her own, surrounded by walkers, man. It was every man for himself and we all did what we had to do to survive and found each other. I’ve survived on my own since day one, I’m good on my own. This world was meant for crazy people to thrive and lucky for you, papi, I’m…what do you hicks say again? I’m a card short of a full deck.” She said playfully and he laughed quietly.

“Hm…yeah we do say somethin’ like dat. -He smiled and sniffled again loudly, wiping his nose. -Sorry ‘bout that.” 

“No, it’s alright. -She whispered to him as she tried to appease him. She could not meet his eyes as, as usual, his vulnerability was raw and unsettling to Beau. She always felt the need to use humor to downplay the situation. It was her way to pretend that she was not as shaken by his words, his sincerity and sensitivity as she actually was. -I’m not gonna lie I find it pretty hot, makes me want to dominate you or some shit.” She added quietly with a grin, making him snort mockingly. 

She leaned onto him slowly and kissed him softly, their breathing mixing together. She firstly kissed his bottom lip, catching it sensually between her lips, using the right amount of pressure, before doing the same to his upper lip. She then licked his lips before deepening the kiss. She had both her hands on his face now, her thumbs caressing gently his cheeks. He groaned into the kiss and one of his hand came to her neck, pushing her into the kiss even more. They fought for dominance for a little bit, but Daryl let her have it as he knew she liked it.   
They separated and Beau lightly bumped her nose to his. Daryl placed both his hands on her face, holding it closely to his as he looked into her eyes.

“I thought I’d never see you again. -He murmured with a broken and low voice. -When Rick found me, I was…empty, I don’t know, ‘s like I was broken or some shit. Felt like I couldn’t breathe no more.” 

Beau could see the hurt on his face as he tried to express how he had felt. The silence fell on them and the sounds of the other’s breathing came rushing to them.   
She swallowed thickly as she suddenly felt nervous, her hands were getting sweaty and her pulse quickened. 

“I luh ya.” Beau mumbled as she looked down. Her voice was barely above a whisper, and Daryl was not sure he heard her right. However, the doubt that she might have actually said it, made his heartbeats increased. 

“What?” He asked after a second or two. 

Beau cleared her throat before looking back at him, meeting his eyes with some newfound confidence. Her gaze was almost daring, defensive even.

“I love you. There I said it.” She whispered slightly louder, and it sounded almost aggressive. Daryl would have smirked, if he wasn’t that shaken. It was the first time she said it. He waited so long for it and he truly believed that day would never come. 

Beau could tell he wanted to say something, but he couldn’t. He was looking at her face intently, almost with adoration. She was pretty sure he was holding his breath without noticing it. He grabbed her shoulders after sometimes, almost lifting her up, unsticking her butt from her feet. Her weight was now completely shifted onto her knees as he pulled her chest to his face. His forehead was resting in-between her breasts, his head tilted downwards; the position was somewhat submissive and intimate, almost like bowed down to her.   
Beau stopped breathing unconsciously.

“You’re everything to me, Beau.” He finally said, looking back at her, his face tilted upwards. His hands were still holding her shoulders firmly. 

“Wanna get married? I mean we have a priest and a church.” She shrugged, playing it cool as she sported a teasing grin. At that, Daryl dropped his hands from her shoulders, and he rolled his eyes at her.

“Ight, forget it.” He whispered with a gruff voice as he lifted her to the side, away from him, making Beau giggled. 

“Ya think it’s funny. Ya such a brat.” He muttered as he shook his head, exasperate. 

“Aye don’t be mad. You know that shit throws me off more than I’d like.” She said sincerely to him, looking at her sneakers as she plunged played with a loose thread from her football’s shorts. 

He sighed, knowingly. 

“And ya think it ain’t the same fer me? Whenever I open maself up like that to ya, ‘s like I’m naked and ‘m puttin’ maself all out there fer ya to hurt me, if ya wanna. Ya don’t know whatchu can do to me, Beau. How easily ya could break me.” 

Daryl’s eyes were set on Beau, piercing through her and she shuffled uncomfortably under the intensity of his gaze. 

“I won’t hurt you. -She mumbled. -At least, not on purpose.” 

He exhaled deeply through the nose before nodding. 

“What were ya talkin’ ‘bout with Rick?” He asked after sometimes.

“About me not agreeing to go to Washington.” 

“Why?” He wondered, looking at her with a frown. 

“’Cause I wanna go to Florida, see if I can find Brady. It was always my intentions.” She sighed.

“Yer not plannin’ on leavin’, are ya?” 

Beau could almost hear the fear behind that question, and she frowned. 

“What is it with you guys thinking I’m gonna walk out on you?” She added with her arms opened, infuriated. 

“What? Like ya didn’t think ‘bout it.” 

“Yeah, I thought about it, but I won’t. I can’t.”

“Why?”

“You know why. I’m in love with you, asshole. -She whispered aggressively, and she punched him in the shoulder. -And I’m not about to ask you to walk out on Rick. He’s your bro, now.” She shrugged.

He sighed and the silence fell on them once again.

“Just so ya know, if ya’d asked me to choose, I’d choose you.” He mumbled while chewing on his thumb. 

“I know.” She sighed.


End file.
